Dempsey says Wexford a force to be reckoned with

THEY competed manfully in the first-half, but Carlow ultimately succumbed to a superior force in Croke Park yesterday.

Manager Luke Dempsey had no qualms in paying tribute to Wexford as the Barrowsiders fell to a 14-points defeat.

“Wexford’s second-half performance was outstanding. They showed their experience of the last four years when they got into an All-Ireland semi-final in 2008 and last year the way they ran Dublin ragged for a lot of that game.

“They’re a very good side, scoring 1-24 against Westmeath and they scored 2-16 against Offaly. I have to say, hats off to the Wexford second-half performance, it was physically very well controlled, it was tactically excellent and they are a very, very good side. Wexford are a force to be reckoned with after their second-half performance.”

Wexford wrestled back control of the midfield area in the second-half and Dempsey regarded that as being critical in fashioning their victory.

“I think around the midfield area Wexford got so much control. We never got back that domination we had early on.We tried several changes there. But they’re a very big side, not just their two midfielders, but also their two attacking wing-backs. We just couldn’t get the ball up front. No matter how well your defence has been doing in the first-half, if the supply of ball is coming in because of their midfield dominance it makes life very, very difficult.

“I was really pleased with our defence despite the scores, although the first two goals were quite naively given away. But overall that midfield area in the second-half was a place we could just not get on top of Wexford’s physicality.”

Dempsey is hoping the positive nature of Carlow’s first-half display can be used as a platform heading into the qualifiers.

They now travel to Casement Park to face Antrim on Saturday week and the aim will be to use the optimism generated over the last few weeks to fuel their drive for glory.

“The effort we put in and the way football in Carlow is going is what pleased me most about this outing. We’ve brought this group to Croke Park, we didn’t fare well in the second half, but it doesn’t take away from a marvellous few weeks in Carlow football and the support we had out there.

“I was just delighted our players put in such a marvellous performance in the first-half. I was delighted with our tactics where we stopped the supply of ball going into, especially, Ciarán Lyng and Redmond Barry.

“We came to Croke Park with marvellous support and we really were well prepared. We have to show that the improvement in Carlow football is genuine and the only way of doing that is to give another good performance in the qualifiers. We hope the competitive nature of the first-half will be replicated and it will be in two halves next day.”