*Wexford manager, Darragh Egan. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill
WEXFORD manager, Darragh Egan pulled no punches after his charges were annihilated by Clare on Sunday.
By the final whistle, twenty two points separated the sides in what was Clare’s biggest win over the Model County in the National Hurling League.
An All-Ireland winner with the Tipperary hurlers in 2010, Darragh was very frustrated in the aftermath of such a heavy defeat. “Nothing can excuse conceding 4-17 in the first half and I want to make that very clear. That is just not acceptable. We won five from five in the league (last year), absolutely flying it then got a fair beating against Waterford. Our focus, yes, we want to be more robust, better equipped for April 22 this year. But we still want to go out and try and win every league game”.
Kiladangan native Egan was very annoyed that his side conceded six goals. “We definitely coughed up four goals that we shouldn’t have; coming out with the ball, and getting turned over”.
He outlined, “Clare were very efficient. They scored 4-17 in the first half and that’s not acceptable from our perspective. I must say, they were very sharp. We knew we were going to be under pressure today. We were down a few bodies but the whole thing for the last four months was about building a panel, to see who we have”.
Some of the players on display for Wexford in the Clare game won’t see action for the remainder of the year, Darragh admitted. “Some lads put their hands up, have played consistently over the last few weeks; other lads came in today and didn’t perform. Unfortunately, the nature of the game is that they mightn’t see action for the rest of the year. That’s the way it has to be”.
