Starlights hoping for big one from Hudson

STOP me if you've heard this one before. It's about an unfancied Wexford football team taking on opponents from one of the game's traditional power bases.

And they're doing it with a forward who seems to be destroying sides single-handedly all year.

The twist here is Mattie Forde is nowhere in sight. The player with the Midas touch is instead full-forward John Hudson and his team is Wexford champions Starlights who take on Trevor Giles's heavily-fancied Skryne in Newbridge tomorrow (2.30pm).

Statistics can be deceiving or enlightening but we're plumping for the latter with this one. The Enniscorthy team has played seven championship matches since September, inside and outside Wexford, to reach this stage. In that time they have scored a grand total of seven goals and 72 points, 6-42 of which has come from one or other of Hudson's boots or fists.

The 3-5 he bagged in the third round county clash against Naomh Eanna tops the individual chart. In the two attempts needed to outrun Carlow's Rathvilly in the previous round, he scored all but one point in their combined tally of 2-13. Impressive and all as those figures are, one has to worry for Starlights if Skryne can shackle that sort of scoring power.

"That is a worry," manager Seamie Byrne said yesterday. "Skryne could choose to concentrate on him and I wouldn't blame them if they did. What I would say is look to other facts though. We conceded two goals in our first championship game against Sarsfields on May 1 and we haven't conceded one since.

"We haven't conceded over 10 points to any team in all that time either. It might look like we're a one-man team but our defence is our secret weapon," he says.

It may be Starlight's first time past round one of Leinster but this success has been well signposted as far back as the winter of 93/94 when Byrne first got involved with the club's minor set-up. Two county minor and two U21 titles have followed since then.

In 2002 they completed the county U21 double in hurling and football (the hurling arm of the club plays as the Raparees) as well as clinching a first county senior title since 1983. Despite their new-found success, tomorrow won't be an occasion to faze them, not a team with men like Adrian Fenlon, Declan Ruth and Tomas Mahon in tow.

"Our first crack at Leinster two years ago was a disappointing one," Byrne said. "We felt we should have done the business up in Ardee in the first round and we were a tired team by the time the replay came down here. They went on to lose out narrowly in the Leinster final afterwards.

"Still, this is new territory for us and anything from here is a bonus. There's no way we'll be overawed by it," he says.

In Wexford they've been dealing with this dual code thing for donkey's years. While other dual counties squabble and scream, Wexford get on with it even if they know the situation isn't perfect. Raparees lost senior hurling finals in 96, 98 and 2001 and there are people in the club who will tell you they would have won at least one of them if their resources weren't so divided.

For now the focus is on football and Skryne. The Meath side have as little Leinster pedigree as their opponents but, being from Meath, start the game as odds-on favourites to book their place in the final on December 5.