WEXFORD’S ADRIAN FLYNN was the man of the hour after scoring five points from wing-back against Longford.
It was a remarkable feat and a couple of them, scored with the outstep of his boot, will be replayed on TV throughout the summer.
Flynn admits to playing most of his club football for Gusserane at corner-or full-forward and was originally selected for the Model County at wing-forward until injuries thrust him into the wing-back role.
The man himself didn’t want to make too much of his five points: “Some days you have that day and I was lucky to have it.”
Full-forward Brian Kavanagh was the only man to score from play for Longford in the first half as he tormented Graeme Molloy with four points. What did he think of Flynn? “He kicked a few great points with the outside of the boot; we’ll have to get him shooting with the inside of the boot next week,” he laughed.
Longford boss Glenn Ryan says there was little to be done against the Gusserane man. “We did see it, we tried to address it but he kicked a couple of outstanding points,” said Ryan.
“You have to give him credit for that. That’s the one thing you face going in against a team like Wexford. Sure their corner-back (Rob Tierney) scored the point at the end, half-back scored five points. But that’s the way they play, they’re all-out attack.
“He’s (Flynn) a good footballer, he’s a converted wing-back. Not that we weren’t aware of him today but we’ll be wary of him the next day.”
Not that Flynn was the only star turn on show; a certain centre-forward from Clonguish put away two goals for Longford. “Paul Barden is just a nightmare,” said Jason Ryan. “He just keeps on bouncing back.
“You think you have him under control and all of a sudden he just away and causes problems.
Between league and championship, Longford and Wexford will now play for a fourth successive competitive game.
“One of the lads said in there (the dressing-room): Longford are like a bad ex-girlfriend, you just can’t shake them off,” laughed Flynn.
Kavanagh was just happy to get another game in the provincial championship: “It’s the first time I’ve ever played a third Leinster championship game in the one year. I’m just looking forward to it.
“We’re on first-name terms now with all the players. Ah, it’s great to be involved, you know. Longford teams in the past probably would have lost that game with five minutes to go. But we’ve such momentum this year in 2012 that we still had the belief that we could dig out a result.”
There was plenty made of how much handpassing Jason Ryan’s side got through in the game, with one stat showing they completed 100 of 145 such passes in the first half alone. The Wexford manager gave him reasoning behind this: “When you play against the team that have a lot of bodies behind the ball, you have two options. If you win the primary possession, you can deliver the ball nice and fast inside.
“But if that option is not on… and they way they play, Declan Reilly, Dermot Brady, Barry Gilleran, they are tight, Colm Smyth is tight. And if they’re tight enough and a player looks up and there’s nothing to hit, you have to recycle it. So recycle means handpass it.
“When we played them in the league final I think we gave away 24 balls in the first half and today that was one of our focuses. We knew that play might be slow but that we had to keep on recycling the ball. And I would imagine, compared to a lot of the day that we play, that we do handpass the ball maybe a little bit more.”
Kavanagh explained that the conditions played their part too: “I suppose the teams that were shooting into the Hill were forced into handpassing the ball because there was a strong wind there and you didn’t want to be giving away possession.
“There was a lot of handpassing but on a wet day you want to be more conservative; you want to be tight and let the ball in when you can.”
The replay takes place in Portlaoise this coming weekend and when the Wexford manager was asked whether, taking into account the small attendance, he prefers playing away from Croke Park, his answer was emphatic.
“No, no, no, Croke Park is headquarters,” insisted Ryan. “This is it. Every player, every coach, every manager, every watercarrier – you want to be watercarrier, coach, manager in Croke Park. That’s where you want to be.
“When the players look back on their career – how many games did you win? How many cups did you win? How often did you get to play at Croke Park? That’s what it’s all about.
“For Wexford games we haven’t had a big crowd, whether we’re playing in Croke Park, Tullamore or Portlaoise, it doesn’t matter anyway. We want to play games in Croke Park.
“The GAA is an association for all counties in Ireland, not just the ones that are winning All-Irelands every year. It should be the case that all the counties get a chance to play their games at Croke Park.
“Money for it was raised all around the country, it’s a national stadium and all the teams should be able to play there.”
Longford’s Ryan, who had been listening in on his counterpart before taking the stand, was asked the same thing. He was smiling before the question was finished. “Glad to play anywhere. Whether it’s Croke Park or Tullamore. It’s nice to be playing in Croke Park but these are all good venues…” and Ryan chuckles, letting us know he’s happy to toe this particular line.
Wexford’s forwards scored just 0-4 from play during the game and, as a matter of course, their manager had to field a question on Mattie Forde.
“Yeah, I’ve heard of him; he’s a good footballer,” Ryan smiled.
“He played with the juniors on Wednesday and he kicked one or two just amazing points,” the manager said with drawn-out admiration. “Like he’s still playing well and I think he could still play senior inter-county football but what I think and what he thinks are… Look he’s given his time, he and I have spoken and he’s happy with his decision. That’s that.”
Wexford would always be happy to see the Kilanerin man but does Longford boss Ryan feel like it’s groundhog day. “I would have been sick of the sight of them if we had lost so we’ll take the draw.”
As if anyone here has a choice.