Davy Fitzgerald's Wexford can upset the odds at Clare

Clare v Wexford
Pairc Ui Chaoimh
RTE, 3pm Saturday

Davy Fitzgerald takes his Wexford side to Pairc Ui Chaoimh to face his native county Clare in the first of this year’s All Ireland hurling quarter-finals.

Wexford’s season has been hit-and-miss with their promising start in Leinster wiped out by an extremely poor performance against Galway and a one-point loss to Kilkenny.

Wexford led Kilkenny by nine points early in the second half but they looked tired as the game wore on and allowed Kilkenny back into the game too easily. That was Wexford’s third match in three weeks but that can hardly be used as an excuse as one of those games was a 24-point win over Offaly and the other was a non-performance against Galway.

They were undoubtedly primed for the battle with Kilkenny, as shown by their first-half performance, but they must now put together a full 70 minutes. An 11-point win over Westmeath last Saturday was far from satisfactory and Fitzgerald has made it known they must improve significantly, which they should.

Clare have been solid throughout the championship and led Cork by eight points after 34 minutes. However they were hit for 1-3 without reply either side of half-time and Cork never looked back.

The Clare forward line, so impressive in the first half, had little impact in the second through a combination of poor use of the ball and Cork’s defence sparking into life. Cork easily mopped up everything that was delivered to the Clare forward line and they struggled to get anything significant on the scoresheet.

Wexford are clearly underdogs heading into this tie but Clare are unlikely to have it all their way.

Fitzgerald’s mind games are well known and there’s no doubt he’ll have his side primed for this. Wexford are used to the underdog tag and seem to revel in it, as have many of Fitzgerald’s sides.

The key for Wexford will be how they limit the supply of ball to John Conlon and they are likely to operate with a sweeper to cut off the supply. As Cork did in the second half of the Munster final, the Wexford forwards must put pressure on the Clare defence coming out with the ball to disrupt the quality of ball delivered.

Rory O’Connor has been the star man for Wexford in 2018 and is expected to return to the starting line-up having missed last week’s clash with Westmeath. This is sure to be a battle of two teams playing similar styles, but expect Wexford to be tight defensively and cut off supply to the Clare attack.

Recommendations
Wexford +4
2pts 5-6 general
Wexford
1pt 5-2 general

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