Wexford's goal well may run dry

At last October's special congress in Dublin, delegate Tony Dempsey was greeted by one well-wisher who said that he had thought the new Wexford hurling manager would have had more sense by that stage. Dempsey was facing into what looked like a bleak task. The championship draw hadn't yet opened up the county's route to the Leinster final and the road ahead looked long on rebuilding work and short on cavalcades.

Ten months later, the scenery's much improved. Two fine championship results against the two Munster finalists and suddenly there's self-confidence and momentum. Too much, according to Dempsey who felt during the week that the mood in the county was a bit too upbeat.

For better or for worse, Wexford find themselves cast as the Dublin of this weekend's replay action. This afternoon's second attempt at the Guinness All-Ireland semi-final at Croke Park can be interpreted two ways. Maybe the above comparison will hold true and the gap in capacity between Wexford's attack and Tipperary's will be the their undoing.

There are, however, more encouraging interpretations for Wexford. They have been brought on tremendously by their success and Tipp's forwards, although superior on paper (and indeed on grass), are not as lethal as Kerry's.

Yet there were striking parallels between the experiences of Leinster's beaten finalists in football and hurling. While the great comeback naturally took the lion's share of the publicity, Wexford had good chances to win the match before Michael Jordan levelled it.

Jordan himself was wide a couple of minutes before scoring, Damien Fitzhenry sent a long-range free wide rather than drop it into the square, and Rory McCarthy failed to exploit another good scoring opportunity. It would have been easier to win the semi-final in those closing minutes rather than have to return for a second match - as Dublin found.

The potential was there for a close match even if the prospect of Tipperary not winning seemed remote. That potential has hardly been diminished by last weekend's draw. The question for the Munster champions is to what extent they can learn the reasons for their collapse - or at least the inexorable erosion of match-winning leads.

In general terms, Wexford have learned far more about their team. The configuration that ended the drawn match will more or less start this afternoon. Throw in Martin Storey and Gary Laffan - quite quickly give the sudden noises emminating about Ger Coleman's fitness - and the attack looks more promising. But there is still a long way to go.

A team that averages 11 points in serious championship matches is always going to need goals. These have so far been provided in pairs by the goalkeeper and a converted wing back. Can this serendipitous supply continue?

Michael Jordan was the only scoring forward the last day. Paul Codd, Larry Murphy and Rory McCarthy all under-performed. Under-21s Darren Stamp and Nicky Lambert are more comfortably deployed elsewhere and the former will probably end up at wing back.

The stranglehold on Tipp's forwards that Wexford had established by the end of last Sunday afternoon shouldn't obscure the less assured phases of the match. The full backs played well, with "Doc" O'Connor excellent, but both Rory Mallon and Darragh Ryan knew lonely moments.

In fairness to Ryan he is struggling with a debilitating knee injury, and his second half raised the team's morale as surely as Storey's arrival. But in the first half, his dominion wasn't as pronounced as depicted in certain quarters (including, ummm, this one).

Declan Ryan in the first half managed a point, two goal chances - one ending in a great save, the other in a deserved penalty - one wide, drawing a foul for a pointed free and providing the assist for John Carroll's goal. Not a bad 35 minutes for a full forward.

Similarly, Liam Dunne hurled up a storm in the last 15 minutes, but he had earlier been under pressure in his quick-draw duel with Carroll - suggesting that maybe the switch with Declan Ruth isn't as suspect as it looks.

It's hard to see what Tipperary manager Nicholas English could have learned that hasn't already alarmed him this season. His forwards are capable of moving from the sublime to the anonymous and rarely have the substitutions made much difference.

His half backs were again excellent until they were simply bypassed with some old-style Wexford tactics. The one surprise, and it was a nasty one, was that the previously assured full backs didn't, with the exception of Paul Ormond, cope well.

It's all a bit worrying from a Tipperary perspective, but the positive aspect is that they should still win this. Without a fully firing set of forwards, it is unlikely that Wexford can continue to pillage goals at the rate of three and four a match. In that event, even an improved Wexford defence and a more competitive centrefield won't be able to hold their opponents to a manageable score.

The GAA issued a statement yesterday to say that the decision to have television commentary in English rather than Irish during last Sunday's minor hurling match between Galway and Tipperary was taken by RT╔ without agreement with the association.

The policy of having commentaries on the minor match in Irish "will now be resumed" the statement adds.