Wexford alter side for Down match

Wexford manager Colm Bonnar has tweaked his starting line-up for Sunday's Allianz NHL Division 2 clash with Down at Wexford Park (throw-in 1.30pm).

There is a new midfielder partnership in PJ Nolan and Malachy Travers, while the rest of the changes are in attack.

Andrew Shore comes in at right half-forward, in place of Darren Nolan, and Tomás Waters starts at full-forward with Jim Berry, Wexford's goalscorer in last weekend's win over Westmeath, moving to the left corner.

Stephen Banville is the player to miss out in the reshuffle.

Down were hammered 2-20 to 0-6 by Clare in their league opener last weekend, while nine points from Diarmuid 'Gizzy' Lyng helped Wexford overcome Westmeath on a 1-20 to 0-14 scoreline.

Bonnar has revealed that his Wexford players are continuing to focus on strength and conditioning work, as he feels it is an area they need to improve on in order to compete with the best sides around the country.

"We are doing a lot of serious strength and conditioning programmes, so we have no hurling done except for the games that we have played," he told the Wexford Echo.

"We'll be concentrating on the gym work right into early March because we feel we need more strength to help us to lift the intensity of our hurling once the Championship comes around.

"I was delighted with the way we responded to how fast Westmeath got into the game (last week), and once we settled we were very well organised from our own puck-out and the lads did well with the breaking ball too.

"It is always vital to get off to a winning start in the league because it moves us in the right direction, giving us momentum.

"We need to maintain that so as once we actually start to work on our hurling, we can step things up quite quickly again."

WEXFORD (NHL v Down) - Dermot Flynn; Eoin Doyle, Paul Roche, Keith Rossiter; Darren Stamp, Ciarán Kenny, Ritchie Kehoe; PJ Nolan, Malachy Travers; Andrew Shore, Willie Doran, Diarmuid Lyng; Rory Jacob, Tomás Waters, Jim Berry.