Sporting Fingal FC -v- Wexford Youths FC

• Gordon Hunt
• Thu, Mar 19 2009


Despite sitting at different ends of the financial spectrum, both Sporting Fingal and Wexford Youths will be looking for their first win of the season when they meet at the Morton Stadium on Friday night (kick-off 7.45pm).

Fingal faltering
Fingal have struggled to get going this year after manager Liam Buckley assembled a new and expensive squad during the close season. After rescuing a late draw at Waterford United on the opening day, they suffered a disappointing loss at home to UCD last week. Wexford, on the other hand, would not have expected much from their opening three games, as they were pitted against the three favourites for promotion: Shelbourne, Waterford and now Sporting.

Improvement needed
Despite a start he terms as 'simply not good enough', however, Buckley is happy with his players' attitude and work ethic during the past week. “I’ve been encouraged by the response of players to training this week," he said. "We’ve had another home game to prepare for quickly and the application during the training sessions could not be questioned. Unfortunately we didn’t reach the desired level of performance last weekend. Fair play to UCD, they were better in every department and battled for the win. From our point of view, it simply wasn’t good enough.”

Pitch controversy
Wexford’s last outing, a narrow 1-0 home loss to Waterford, was tinged in controversy, following the visitors' insistence that they warm up on the match pitch at Ferrycarrig Park, rather than the training pitch. “Waterford became the first league side to do so despite the fact that our second pitch is of a higher quality than their first pitch," Wexford manager Mick Wallace said. "Gamesmanship, to put it crudely. In return, we refused to feed the Waterford players and officials after the game.”

Mixed news
For the game, Fingal will be without Gary O’Neill and Stephen Paisley. Paisley (groin strain) is still a week away from full fitness while O’Neill sustained the same injury during last weekend’s defeat by UCD. Better news is that Eamon Zayed returns after overcoming a hip problem. Wexford, meanwhile, have no injury worries.

extratime.ie prediction: 3-0.