Dublin U16 V Wexford

  • Apr 05,2009

The Model County in the sunny south east was the Dublin Juveniles latest venue in their tour of Leinster. The draws this year have the Dubs on four away games on the trot. Today was the third trip out of the Capital. The sun came out too, as befits the description given to that corner of Ireland.

Dublin Under 16s won possession from the off and nearly scored. Wexford replied with an attempt of their own before the ball went back down the park. This time the Jackies got lucky and the ball found the back of the net. 1 goal up on the third minute. The clear out put Wexford on the board with a point. This was followed by another for the home side in the sixth minute and a good game of football looked to be on. We were wrong. Nearby to the Shelmaliers Club which hosted todays game there is Curracloe beach made famous for the making of Saving Private Ryan. For those who dont know this movie, it is set around the D-day landings in Normandy. Those soldiers just kept coming. And that is what happened on the pitch. Ball after ball went into the back of the net. After Wexfords second point the Dubs put another goal in. The Umpires arm was well exercised waving the green flag as he did so on the seventh, eighth, tenth, thirteenth, and eighteenth minute. So much was happening at the Wexford goal end that Dublin took their eye off the ball and Wexford put in an easy one of their own. They were punished for that as the Dubs then began with the points. But Wexford began to take some control and the last five minutes was a decent enough game of football. The tally at the whistle was 8-3 to 1-4 in favour of the visitors.

In the second half, Wexford tried to make a game of it and put the Dublin defense under pressure. This resulted in two penalties being awarded for the home side and two points taken from frees. The Wexford back lines too, hassled and harried the girls in blue so that there were a lot more points scored and just two goals. Wexford introduced a parade of subs 20 minutes into the period and that stopped the rot. Counting just the second period, Dublin came out only 4 points ahead. It has to be recorded that Wexfords points taken in both periods had a lovely flow to them and were well deserved.

The final tally by this reporters reckoning was 3-9 to 10-12 to the visitors, but this was not checked with the Referee. The Dublin scorekeeper attributes 10-11 to his side, we await confirmation.

The Dublin Panel was:


1. E Cassidy  2. D Murphy 3. J Ward 4. L Caffrey 5. G Barrett 6. A Caffrey 7. A ODonnell 8. S Powell (0-1) 9. O Smartt 10. A Philips
11. A  King (4-0)  12. L OCurry 13. M Kenny (1-1) 14. S Garvin (0-1) 15. S Killeen (5-1)


Subs; S McCaffrey (0-1), E McDonagh, M OReilly, E McGrath (0-1), A Gallagher, M Carney (0-2), S Woods (0-3), A Gillen, C King, C Young, J Wall, S Farrelly


This correspondent didnt get to the Under 14 game but can report that Dublin put that one in the bag as well. 3 out of 3.

Next venue on the Tour of Leinster, Easter Monday away to Kildare. Watch the website for details.