UCD went top of the Southern Elite Division after a 1-0 win over Wexford in the only game played in the Under 19 league over the weekend.
The game was re-fixed due to the upcoming wedding of Wexford boss Thomas O’Connor and his fiancé Louise. Wexford are extremely thankful to everyone at UCD for accommodating them with the fixture.
The game was settled with a penalty by Ben Hanrahan.
We spoke to Wexford’s Assistant Manager James Quinn after the game. He said, “The game started quietly enough, then after 10 minutes UCD scored a penalty after a good breakaway down their left wing.”
“UCD played a lot of good fluid football for the next 25 minutes, keeping good possession without really threatening our goal.”
“For the last 10 mins of the half we pinned them back and created a few good chances. We had a goal by Dean George disallowed for offside, and the same player also missed a good chance after a great knock down from Craig Hayes. Cian Doyle also had a well struck volley go just over the cross bar.”
“In the second half we played some great football and kept UCD pinned back for long periods without really threatening their goal too much.”
“We had numerous corners and free kicks close to their penalty box, but apart from a couple of headers off target from Owen McCormack and a mishit volley from Adam Rochford we didn’t bother the UCD keeper too much.”
“Overall we are very disappointed as a group to lose the game as we felt our second half performance maybe deserved a draw.”
“Best of the day for us were Kyle Doherty, Vinny Quinlan and Eoin Donnelly.”
Check out the highlights from the game here;
UCD manager Maciej Tarnogrodzki was pleased to win the game. He said, “I think the match was very enjoyable to watch from a fans perspective. It was important for us to win that match as we dropped a couple of points previously drawing games at home.”
“I watched the Wexford team a couple of times before and we expected a difficult game as they are a decent side with good players.”
“I think our performance was good throughout the 90 minutes, however the game was open until the final whistle with a 1-0 lead from the beginning of the game.”
“In the first half Ben Hanrahan converted a penalty after being brought down by a Wexford centre-half after Yousef Mahdy’s excellent through pass.”
“Apart from that we created a couple of good chances and got behind the Wexford defence, but a very narrow offside in one instance and some final passes couldn’t find a player in good position.”
“I thought Wexford had one very good chance in the match and that was in the first half. Apart of that I thought we kept everything in front of us.”
“In the second half apart from the first 10-15 minutes we moved the ball well, but we had to be very alert and deal with very good long passes towards the Wexford striker who was always a treat throughout the match.”
“Our defence controlled by Joe Manley was excellent on the day and dealt very well with these situations plus the whole team defended well against a good number of corners Wexford had in the second half.”
“It was very hot weather on Monday and considering that we played on Thursday night against Shelbourne in the Cup, I thought the team was excellent on the day.”