Evening Echo
by John Horgan
10th March 2003

National Hurling League
Cork 2-14    Wexford 1-10
Wexford Park, 9th March 2003

A Sunday afternoon in Wexford town that won't have an extended stay in the memory bank.

This was a NHL collision between two very mediocre teams but the portents were slightly more illuminating for the visitors at the end of the 70 minutes than they were for the home side.

Departing from any venue in the Model County with maximum points in the bag must give cause for a certain degree of satisfaction but before anybody gets carried away with this result, let's make it quite clear that this was one of the poorest Wexford teams that this observer has ever seen.

You could count on the fingers of one hand the number of Wexford players that held their reputations intact.

Centre-back Declan Ruth, substitute Paul Codd, despite an appalling miss when he had a goal at his mercy, and Mitch Jordan made an ample contribution but after that it was like looking for a needle in a haystack to find a yellow belly of note.

So to Cork. First of all they must have constituted some sort of a record with the first-half statistic of going 27 minutes without putting any type of score on the board.

The swirling breeze certainly didn't help their cause but some of the wides in that period were inexcusable at this level.

Damien Fitzhenry did make two sublime stops from Eoin Fitzgerald early on but once again there was no real conviction in anything the Cork attack did.

And, as a unit, on the evidence of this 70 minutes this team is still desperately short of the penetration and bereft of the craft that will be required when much more difficult questions will be posed than there were yesterday.

I suppose a return of the 2-14 in 43 minutes on the type of dog day afternoon that it wasn't bad going but again only three of the six starting forwards got on the scoresheet.

If that was a negative aspect of the day there was a much more positive return from the defence and in particular the half-back line where John Gardiner had an outstanding afternoon from open play and free taking and alongside him Ronan Curran built firmly on his opening day lines against Limerick.

Sean Og o hAilpin, despite Mitch Jordan taking four points off him, played solidly all through and behind this trio Wayne Sherlock gave another almost flawless display.

Pat Mulcahy wasn't overly convincing at full-back and has much work to do if he is to emerge as a viable alternative to Diarmuid O'Sullivan.

Let's be honest here, there's only one full-back for this Cork team and that's the Cloyne man and the quicker he returns to full fitness the better.

Brian Murphy didn't do anything wrong on the left but we must see him in action again against a more potent attacking force.

Mickey O'Connell was busy around the middle, scored a fine point and was the best of the quartet on duty here.

Overall, an important result for a side still very much on a learning curve and as Donal O'Grady pointed out afterwards, it's much easier to go back training on a Tuesday night after a win than it is after a defeat.

With Derry in Pairc Ui Chaoimh next Sunday and another two points almost certain to be bagged, Cork will be in a strong position in the group and for a side with very little hurling put in on the training ground, that's not bad for starters.

But, it must be emphatically stressed, that there's work - an awful lot of it - to be done before there's even a hint of silverware.

It was 1-2 to 0-5 at the break, Cork's goal coming in the 28th minute from Alan Browne after Fitzhenry had batted down a ball heading over the bar.

Timmy McCarthy delivered Cork's second goal five minutes into the second half, getting on the end of a Joe Deane pass.

Wexford's goal arrived a minute after Donal Og Cusack was obstructed and the ball went in off full-forward Anthony O'Leary.

Joe Deane and John Gardiner put up 11 points between them for Cork over the hour and 10 minutes, the majority of them from the dead ball.