Far from a Model display, says Ryan

WEXFORD boss Jason Ryan was keeping his feet firmly on the ground after yesterday’s Leinster SFC semi-final victory over Carlow describing his side’s performance as ‘shocking’.

His team maintained their march through the provincial championship yet this win was achieved on an afternoon when their standards of football did not live up to their manager’s expectations.

“I’m just delighted to win but it wasn’t a great performance. Today I thought we were shocking. It was fundamental stuff, just basic things like handling, passing it on too long and losing balls in the tackle. Our shot selection was also a little bit out.

He continued: “It probably wasn’t a great spectacle. After the previous two games in Leinster a lot of the comments were that we were playing great football.

“The people I met (at home) in Waterford were saying the lads were really great to watch and it was exciting. But today we just did enough. The scoreline in the end, certainly on the first-half performance, was very unfair.”

Ryan reserved special praise for the contribution of forward Shane Roche. During a first-half where Wexford were struggling to get going, it was Roche who provided the vital scores as he struck 2-3 out of their 2-4 tally in the opening period.

“He was really good. It’s a great boost for him, a heck of a boost. The Offaly game he was okay, the Westmeath game he improved a certain amount and on Sunday he was a lot better. So that’s good. Getting goals was terrific because that’s a great boost. It was good to see a number of the other forwards getting scores rather than Ciarán and Ben. It was an all round team effort.”

Wexford entered a match in Croke Park in an unusual position in Ryan’s view. Accustomed to wearing the tag of underdogs, they were raging hot favourites to defeat Carlow in this clash and that was something the manager believed may have been a factor in their slack performance.

“We’re so used to coming to Croke Park as underdogs. Every game we come to Croke Park we’re underdogs. Heavy underdogs. In 2008 we came played against Laois, we were underdogs. Against Dublin in the Leinster final, underdogs. And it was the same when we played Down, Armagh, Tyrone. We didn’t play here at all in 2009.

“Then in 2010 we played Dublin here. Underdogs again. So it’s our first time ever coming here as favourites, hot favourites. That tag takes a bit of getting used to. So maybe that had a bit of something to do with our slowness or our lack of slickness at times.”

Wexford’s midfield pairing of Rory Quinlivan and Daithi Waters dominated their sector in the second-half, which was a key improvement after the difficulties they had endured there in the opening period.

“Carlow dominated their kick outs in the first-half so it was only fundamental things that kind of needed to be as,” outlined Ryan. “It was more a case that Tommy Walsh didn’t dominate as much in the second-half. He picked up an awful lot of ball in the first-half but in the second-half he didn’t get as much.”

Wexford now face Dublin in a repeat of the 2008 provincial decider. That clash was a humbling experience for Ryan’s side as they suffered a 23-point defeat. On Sunday week they will get a shot at atonement.

“This is different. In 2008 we were probably going in thinking ‘it’s just good to be there’ and, look, we are delighted to be there. No doubt about it Dublin will be favourites. But we’ve been there before and we’ll give it a good go and see what happens.”