Kildare 1-17

Wexford 0-7

Wexford crashed to a thirteen-point defeat against Kildare in St Conleith’s Park in the opening round of the Electric Ireland Leinster Minor Football Championship on bank holiday Monday.

In glorious conditions in the Newbridge venue, Kildare who have been knocking on the door as the best or second-best team in Leinster for the last number of seasons at this grade, showed no signs of slipping from that position this year as they dominated from start to finish with the defensive structure limiting Wexford to a single shot from play in 60 minutes.

The home side hit the front early in the game as wing back Paddy McDermott raised the first white flag of the afternoon, with centre forward Alex Beirne following up soon after with two points from play.

Kildare corner forward Muiris Curtin was next on the score board with a point from play and another from a free as the home side moved into a 0-5 to 0-0 lead. Wexford did have a good amount of possession at this juncture and throughout but were guilty of over playing the ball as they approached the Kildare 45 metre line and saw an abundance of ball being turned over in the tackle. With forwards in white jerseys hungry for score Jack Smyth, Alex Beirne and Muiris Curtin pushed Kildare eight point to zero in front.

Wexford would eventually get off the mark as dead ball specialist Lee Jordan would kick two beautiful frees from 35 metres out to give Wexford a foothold in the game.

However, the brittle foundations just laid were quickly broken as Ollie Gahan was adjudged to have foot blocked a Kildare attacker despite the fact he was kneeling on the ground when the ball struck him, however a penalty was awarded and a second yellow card saw Gahan sent to the side line. All at the game were shocked by the decision as a difficult task for Wexford was made much harder. Anthony Larkin did his bit to get Wexford going again as he brilliantly saved the penalty from Alex Beirne, before the ball eventually found its way over the bar from Beirne.

Kildare finished the half with three further points to lead 0-12 to 0-2 at the interval.

A familiar pattern followed in the second half with the home side continuing to kick fine scores while Wexford despite their hard work and commitment were not finding cracks in the Kildare defence and points from Tom Browne and Alex Beirne pushed Kildare twelve points in front.

Another free from Lee Jordan lifted the siege briefly but the contest was over when Tom Browne and Alex Beirne pointed and then Marcus Kiely finished a fine Kildare move by hammering the ball to the Wexford net.

Lee Jordan continued to show his free taking expertise towards the end as Kildare were guilty of committing fouls rather than allowing Wexford chances to shoot from play. The Starlights player kicked four points from frees before the end to finish the day with seven points.

Under the new Leinster Minor Championship structure Paul Carthy and his players will get the chance to improve as the season goes on with three more games to come starting with a home tie against Laois in two weeks-time. This reporter feels that competitive games at this level will only benefit this team, who despite the score line on Monday never gave up and improvements will be expected in the next round.

Wexford

Anthony Larkin (Starlights), Jamie Sheehan (Gusserane), Robert Murphy (Kilanerin), James O’Leary (Our Lady’s Island), Ollie Gahan (St Patricks), Mark Kehoe (Gusserane), Harry Kehoe (Volunteers), Emmet Cullen (Gusserane), Ciaran Kavanagh (HWH Bunclody), Jack Finnucane (Sarfields), Emmet Nolan (St Mary’s Maudlintown), Niall Connolly (Rathgarogue Cushinstown), Jack Doran (Naomh Eanna), Lee Jordan (Starlights) (0-7 all frees), Conor Kehoe (Sarsfields) subs Byron Sweeney, Paudie Casey, Adam Mullins, Jack O’Leary, Jason Devereux, Ciaran O’Reagan, Adrian Breen, Sean Murphy, Lee Nolan.