Wexford comfortable as Sligo Rovers suffer another defeat

Irish Independent

7 days ago

It's a tenth defeat of the season for Steve Feeney's side, who were missing 11 players through injury coming into this tie.
The Bit O'Red are now two points off Cork City in 11th place in the table, with three wins and a draw in their last five pushing DLR Waves up to ninth in the table.
Goals from Della Doherty, Ciara Rossiter and Leah McGrath saw Sean Byrne's side collect a third win in four games, moving into third spot in the table.
The visitors were well on top of this tie from early on, with Orlaith Conlon pulling a shot wide with just seconds on the clock.
Aoife Kelly's shot was parried away by Bonnie McKiernan on 10 minutes, with the home side just doing enough to block Rossiter's attempt from the follow-up.
Rovers were struggling to create any real chances early on, with Maria O'Sullivan in the Wexford goals largely a spectator for the early stages.
Bernie Ferreira, in her first start for Steve Feeney's side, did look a threat when on the ball, but Wexford were well armoured to deal with the Northern Ireland underage international.
The home side had a lot of defending to do early on, and it stayed that way for most of the first-half as Ellen Molloy, Kylie Murphy and Becky Cassin continued to create chances for the visitors.
Rovers' first chance of the game arrived on the half hour mark when teenager Mairead McIntyre worked her way into the Wexford box and with a tricky angle, forced a saved from O'Sullivan who just got her fingertips to it, enough to ensure it went out for a corner.
A Wexford goal felt inevitable, and it did arrive on 37 minutes, although the hosts will feel as though they should have done better.
A free from the half-way line caused some confusion at the back for Sligo Rovers, with goalkeeper Bonnie McKiernan first coming off her line to try to get to it ahead of Doherty, but the goalkeeper then retreated to her line.
Doherty had all the space in the world to fire in to put Wexford ahead, and deservedly so.
Wexford almost had a second on 53 minutes when Rovers captain Emma Hansberry was caught in possession by Kelly who then had all the time she needed to charge down on goal, but the shot was brilliantly saved by McKiernan.
A minute later and from the resulting corner, Wexford doubled their lead.
Ellen Molloy's ball into the box was at first held by McKiernan, who couldn't keep a hold of it, dropping the ball right at the feet of Rossiter who was well placed to ensure it went into the net.
A stunning effort from Hansberry, who won an FAI Cup with Wexford in 2015, smacked the crossbar from around 30 yards with 25 left on the clock.
Wexford's lead was comfortable and they added a third with five minutes to go when Leah McGrath's stunning effort from the right hit the top corner in what was the goal of the game.
Steve Feeney's already lengthy injury list was added to when Keeva Flynn went down in serious discomfort, and there were real fears that the Enniscrone native had suffered an ACL rupture but the initial signs at full-time were more promising, although Flynn is likely to miss some time through injury.
Sligo Rovers are not in action this weekend with the semi-finals of the All-Island Sports Cup taking place.
Sligo Rovers: McKiernan, Melly, Flynn (McCarthy, 73), McKinley, Lillie, Hansberry (L Devaney, 68), M Devaney, McKenna, Ferreira (Masterson, 68), McIntyre, McDaniel (Caprani, 55).
Wexford: O'Sullivan, Roche (Daly, 71), Doherty, de Mange, Dwyer, Rossiter (McGrath, 55), Molloy, A Kelly (Kirwan, 87), Cassin, Conlon (Maher, 71), Murphy (L Kelly, 71).
Referee: David Dunne.