Top-half finish on for Mervue as they complete trio of wins over Youths
Date Published: {J}
Wexford Youths 0
Mervue United completed a clean sweep of victories over Wexford Youth in the First Division this season as they registered their third win of the season over the home side at Ferrycarrig Park on Friday night.
After a scoreless opening period Johnny Glynn’s side scored three times without reply after the interval as they went on to dominate the second half as Wexford suffered their 12th home defeat of the season.
Glynn made two changes from the previous week as Damien O’Rourke and Kevin Crehan returned to the starting XI, with Noel Varley suspended and Alex Lee dropping to the bench.
In a fairly even first half, the home side could have taken an early lead when Mervue keeper Ger Hanley dwelt too long on the ball outside his penalty area and was dispossessed by Wexford’s Tom Elmes but his effort at an open goal was blocked by the covering Martin Conneely.
On 20 minutes Pat Hoban came close to opening the scoring when his shot from 25 yards flew just the wrong side of the post, while John Mountney – still searching for his first goal for the club – saw another goal-bound effort deflected away for corner kick.
Hoban came close again on 38 minutes when he latched onto a David O’Brien ball before hitting a searing drive which just cleared the angle of the post and crossbar. Scoreless at the interval, that all changed shortly after the break as Mervue upped their game and took control with Etanda Nkololo and Mark Ludden causing the home side a lot of problems down the left wing.
The opening goal arrived just nine minutes in when Nkololo’s cross was flicked on by Hoban for David Goldbey to volley his first goal of the season into the roof of the net past a helpless Wexford keeper Sean Allen.
The visitors doubled their lead six minutes later when Ludden’s left wing cross was deflected into his own net by defender Martin Kehoe as he attempted to clear the danger under pressure from a lurking Goldbey.
That scoreline became 3-0 on 71 minutes when once again Ludden provided the cross from the left and Hoban arrived to hit a low volley into the bottom corner past Allen, who was making his Airtricity League debut for the home side. That was also Hoban’s fifth goal since returning from Bristol City in July.
For more, read this week's Connacht Sentinel.