Fabulous City fire four past Wexford

By Donncha Noonan | Photo: Kevin Barry Dorney

It was the first away game of the season for Barry Robson’s side, as they looked to add to their win over Treaty United in the first game of the season. City did so in style, with a much improved performance driving the visitors to a 4-1 win in Ferrycarrig Park.

Just the one change to the side that emerged victorious last time out for City, with sixteen year old Cillian Murphy coming into the side after an impressive cameo last week, replacing Conor Drinan.

Stephen Elliott made two changes to his team that kicked their season off with a 3-0 win in Cobh. Mikie Rowe and Evan Osam entered the starting eleven, with Robbie McCourt and Adam Verdon dropping out.

City, looking to improve on a slightly lacklustre performance last week, got off to a flying start, taking the lead after nine minutes. Cillian Murphy was brought down in the box after a brilliant bit of skill, which allowed Seani Maguire to step up and slot the ball into the bottom left corner to give his side an early advantage.

Things only got better for the visitors, as their advantage was doubled seven minutes later. Hans Mpongo received the ball on the left hand side and tried to play the ball into Darragh Crowley. Zayd Abada got there first, but his intervention only played the ball back to Mpongo, who shaped for a shot and curled an audacious effort into the top right corner to score his first in a City shirt.

Wexford went close to pulling a goal back on the stroke of half time. Mikie Rowe led the charge on a counter and burst down the right wing, before cutting inside and bending one towards the far bottom corner, but it whistled marginally wide of the post.

That was the final act of the first half as a blistering start from the visitors left Wexford with a mountain to climb for the second fourty five.

City started the second half just like they did the first, and made it three in the fifty-first minute. Cillian Murphy swung in a brilliant cross from a wide free kick, which found the head of Seani Maguire at the front post, who was able to glance the ball into the far corner to extend his side’s lead.

They were far from done though, as City notched their fourth in the sixty-sixth minute. A long ball from Charlie Lyons was poorly dealt with by Max Murphy, allowing Maguire to latch onto the loose ball. He squared it across to Ruairi Keating, who had an easy tap-in for his first of the game.

The visitors unfortunately did lose their clean sheet with twenty minutes to play. AJ Bridge’s loose pass in the build up from the back went to the feet of Liam Doyle, who laid it wide to Gavin Hodgins. He slid it through to Calum Flynn, who drove a first time effort past Conor Brann to give the hosts a consolation goal.

City could’ve made it five in the eighty-ninth minute. Ryan Butler tried to header a City long ball back to his keeper, but Ruairi Keating managed to slip in and get onto the end of the header. Keating slid the ball under Paul Martin, but his effort rolled precariously past the far post.

That would be all for this one, as City travel back home with all three points. It was a huge improvement on the Treaty game in my opinion. City played with far more tempo and generally just looked way sharper and more comfortable on the ball. The firepower that the Leesiders possess going forward created serious issues for Wexford, issues which players like Maguire, Keating and Mpongo were able to punish. I do believe that, naturally, there were overreactions to last week's performance, and this game shows why we should give this side a bit more grace after one slow game. The one concern would be the wide areas in terms of when City are defending. They seemed quite susceptible to attacks down the flanks when Wexford were attacking, but perhaps I'm just nitpicking.

My Man of the Match goes to City’s Seani Maguire. There’s a good four or five players to choose from here, including Hans Mpongo who I gave it to last week, but here I'm going with Maguire. He was an absolute handful up front for Wexford’s defence, dropping in and creating good opportunities for him and his teammates. He was able to provide two goals and an assist and overall showed his gleaming quality against a First Division outfit.

City will look to continue their one-hundred percent start to the season as they host Bray Wanderers on Friday night. As for Wexford, they'll look to get back to winning ways in Athlone.