Broaders ambitious ahead of Wexford season

Wexford Youths are always one of those clubs you're not quite sure what to expect from, but given the open nature of the First Division promotion race this year; perhaps the Slaneysiders can dare to dream. Extratime.ie caught up with Youths star Dean Broaders ahead of their First Division campaign.

For most players, securing a club is the first thing on the agenda. While it can be a remarkably stressful period of time for players, Dean is just happy to have agreed a new deal at Ferrycarrig Park. “Yeah, of course I'm very happy to be back again. Wexford is a great place and I'm very much looking forward to the new season.”

Pre-season preparations are essential in order to make that good start required in the First Division. Although one of two things haven't gone according to plan, Dean is confident about the forthcoming season. “Pre-season has been good so far. We probably didn't play as many games as we would have liked due to weather but other than that it's gone smoothly. We have a new fitness coach in Paul Smith this year so it's something different than what we were used to. It has been very tough, but the most enjoyable pre-season I've done so far.”

A lot of people would have argued that Wexford needed a revamp in order to be competitive last season. The appointment of Shane Keegan from FC Carlow certainly provided that. Although Keegan was somewhat of an unknown when taking the reins, he has proven to be efficient in his role. Dean Broaders paid tribute to that. “Yeah, since Shane came in, it's been very good in fairness. Probably the main reason for that is his professionalism in what he wants to do and, to be fair, the amount of commitment and hard work he puts into the team is definitely seen and respected by us, so in turn we try to do the same and i think that's why last season went so well.”

Not many people predicted Wexford to be as dogged as they were last season. With a new manager taking control of the first team, most imagined it would take time for the Youths to gel, but they opened their First Division campaign last year with a six-nil trouncing of rivals Waterford United. An improvement was evident, and “Deano” believes he knows where the improvement was.

“Defensively was where we improved most last year. With the likes of Graham Doyle in goal, CJ [Browne] and Jamie [Carr] at centre half, those three set the bar for us early on with their performances and anyone who played there had a great season. Luckily, we've managed to hang on to the majority of those, so hopefully it'll be more of the same this year. Obviously it's very early to be talking about play-offs and promotion, but we definitely want to improve each year and we're confident we can, so who knows.”

Wexford's good showing last season was aided by the goals of Danny Furlong who has since departed for Turner's Cross. While the loss of Furlong cannot be denied, Dean maintains squad depth and versatility will come to Wexford's rescue.

“Danny will be a loss to us. He had a fantastic season even after missing a good amount of games. His goals near the end of the season helped us out of the rough patch we were going through and he was always a threat. Obviously that's why he was so sought after but it's up to the rest of us to try and emulate what he did. Luckily, most of our attackers can play anywhere across the front so yes, the potential for a lot of goals is there.”

In terms of personal ambition, Dean is crystal clear about his goals for the year. “An injury-free season would be nice for once! I picked up a few annoying little injures last year so keeping fit and getting more playing time because of that is what I'd like. Hopefully I can also chip in with my fair share of goals to help us finish as high as we can.”

Wexford Youths have since added friendlies against Limerick, Dundalk and Shelbourne to their pre-season fixture list and will kick off their 2013 First Division season away to Cobh Ramblers on Saturday, March 9^th.