Wexford Youths 1 - 2 Bohemians

• Conor Meagher
• Wed, May 20 2009


It was a clash of the Warriors versus the Gypsies at Ferrycarrig Park Tuesday night and it turned out to be a fantastic Cup Quarter Final with Bohemians shading it. The away side dominated the first half and were two goals to the good going in but with the arrival of Conor Sinnott and Gavin Doyle close to the hour mark saw the Youths go on to win the second half and almost draw the game.

The first strike of the game came through Bohs eager Youths striker Mark Hughes on 12 minutes who showed close control akin to his namesake to turn and shoot under home keeper Pa Doyle after Neale Fenn had beaten Peter White to a deep Brian Murphy free. Hughes showed great qualities in beating Paul Rossiter to the knock-down before holding him off, turning and planting a low shot under Doyle. With 15 minutes gone Anto Murphy almost doubled the lead but saw his back-post header go wide after good work from Bohemians other outstanding prospect of the night, if not the future, Graham Carey down left. The second goal duly arrived on 23 minutes as Carey got inside Rossiter down his favourite left flank to pull back a perfectly weighted ball that an unmarked Neale Fenn only had to divert with his side foot into the roof of the net from just inside the box.

The Dubliners continued to work a harried and young Wexford midfield constantly looking for openings and trying tricks and one twos all over the pitch. Pat Fenlon even substituted Captain Owen Heary with five minutes remaining in the first half, replacing him with Brian Shelly. As the half drew to an end, Gary Sheahan for the Youths almost got rewarded for his tireless running alone upfront as the Bohs keeper Brian Murphy took too long to distribute after beating him to a long ball only for the striker to take the ball off him. The free that was awarded for the shoulder barge that followed could easily been matched with a yellow card. The resulting free was slid across to Johnny Flynn O’Connor by Shane Dempsey only for his sliced left foot effort to miss the target and go down as the home side’s only shot near goal of the first half.

The second period got under way with more positive play from the home side as Sheahan found the ball sticking more often and more willing runners to support. One pass found O’Loughlin after 55 minutes and he fed the overlapping Russell who beat down on goal to squeeze off a curling right foot shot that just went wide. Graham Carey almost wiped out his first half display with a late challenge on Rossiter soon after that saw him booked and lucky to stay on the pitch. Wexford changed personnel after 59 minutes with the introduction of Captain Conor Sinnott and top scorer Gavin Doyle who were doubts before the game. The style of play changed immediately. Sheahan was first to earn a corner after 63 minutes with a cross off McEvoy and within the space of ten minutes the Bohs defender had cleared a bullet header from Patsy Malone off the line, Miller had a volley deflected wide and Rossiter had a shot saved at full stretch by Murphy – all from Sinnott corners.

Miller and O’Connor began finding space down the left and were supplied by Sinnott as the Warriors looked to drag the game back in their favour. Substitute Killian Brennan was booked for blatantly elbowing O’Connor late resulting in the Wexford man sitting out for six minutes towards the end of the game. Wexford brought on Ritchie Fitzgerald in the mean time and withstood some breaks down the flanks from Carey, Murphy and Brennan. Wexford got their second half reward as a neat cross from O’Connor was handled by Jason McGuinness in the first minute of added time allowing Gavin Doyle to bury the spot kick off the left post to win the half for the resurgent Youths however it was a little too late and Bohemians now progress to the Semi Finals.

Wexford Team: 20 Pa Doyle; 2 Anto Russell (Capt), 3 John Flynn O’Connor, 4 Peter White, 5 Paul Rossiter, 6 Liam O’Loughlin; 7 David Miller, 8 Garret McCurtain (Doyle, 59 min); 9 Garry Sheahan (Fitzgerald, 83min); 10 Shane Dempsey (Sinnott, 59min (Yellow, 85min)), 11 Patsy Malone. Subs: 12 Ritchie Fitzgerald, 13 Martin Kehoe, 14 Garrett Wallace, 15 Gavin Doyle, 16 Conor Sinnott.

Bohemians Team: 1 Brian Murphy; 2 Owen Heary (Shelly 40min), 3 Mark Rossiter, 4 Ryan McEvoy (Brennan, 74min), 5 Jason McGuinness (Yellow, 91min); 6 Ken Oman, 7 Anto Murphy, 8 Paul Keegan, 9 Mark Hughes; 10 Neale Fenn, 11 Graham Carey (Yellow, 56min). Subs: 12 Lee Dixon, 14 Denis Moran, 15 Brian Shelly, 16 Killian Brennan, 25 Matt Gregg.

Ref: Ritchie Winters

Attendance: 742

Extratime.ie Man of the Match: Graham Casey, for his assist for the second goal and showing great awareness late on in stretching the home side from wide positions – Pat Fenlon will feel happy to have him and goal-scorer Hughes as the future of the club.