Preview: Wexford Youths vs Killester United

• James Phelan
• Thu, Jun 05 2008




On the 6th of June at 8pm Wexford Youths will welcome Killester United to Ferrycarraig Park for the third round of the FAI Cup. Killester will have high hopes of causing an upset, due to the fact that Wexford are in indifferent form at the moment. However, Mick Wallace will see this as an ideal fixture to get his troops back into a winning mentality.

Killester travel down to Wexford from the North of Dublin City and they have a decent record in this competition. They beat Bangor Celtic 2-1 in the second round of the cup this season, but their best outing would have been in 2006 when they pushed Sligo Rovers all the way in the quarter finals. That year they beat St.Mochtas and Wayside Celtic and then they got a by in the third round due to Dublin City being removed from the League. Killester put up a brave performance and got a draw against Sligo at the Showgrounds, bringing the replay back to Dublin. It wasn’t to be though, and a goal in extra time meant they lost 4-3. The Intermediate side will be hoping for a repeat of their heroics that day against Wexford. Their key men are David Leacy and Michael Keogh who will provide the goal threat for Killester.

Wallace’s men will be hoping to bounce back from their 1-0 defeat to Shelbourne last Friday and even though he might be proud of their defending that night, he will defiantly like to see more from their attacking options if they are to progress to the next round. Last season Wexford were knocked out at the second round by Limerick 37, so they will be out to do their best in this competition this time around, especially after their impressive run in the eircom League Cup. Wallace will probably make a few changes to his side, Pa Doyle might replace Jason Russell in goal and Joey Wadding will be hoping to slot into Wexford’s defence. Also Gavin Doyle and Kyle Dempsey will be hoping to start up front, especially as Wexford are a bit goal shy at the present time. Gareth Larkin will be hoping for a call up, but Paul Murphy is likely to miss out with injury.

Killester will have to be brave and be fully concentrated throughout the game if they are to progress to the next round, because Wexford have a lot to prove to their adoring fans that their season is not going to go belly up during the summer period and a win would do just the trick. The bookies have placed fairly obvious odds on this game with Wexford the favourites at 13/10, the draw at 2/1 and Killester to win at 6/1.

This is the beauty of the cup with nine non league teams left in the competition, the neutrals will be hoping that there is a bit of romance still left and that an underdog can pull off a shock and go into the last 16.

Write off Killester United at your peril.