Keith Rossiter: Wexford 'just missing a small bit of luck'
Byrne Rossiter Of Manager Line: Wexford Pic: Keith The End Inpho/ryan
A dejected Wexford manager Keith Rossiter bemoaned his side’s luck and Rory O’Connor’s double yellow card dismissal as in their All-Ireland quarter-final loss to Clare.
Performing impressively for the time he was on the field, O’Connor was issued two first-half bookings for fouls on David Reidy, the first of them seconds into the game.
Rossiter, who admitted refereeing decisions against Wexford in this championship will give him “a couple of sleepless nights”, said: “We’re devastated, to be honest with you, we prepared really well for it, the lads were in good form and just for the way it went, it’s very disappointing. You know, you throw everything at it, no different to any other team, our lads put in the same amount of effort.
“We’re just missing a small bit of luck, I think. It’s happened to us too often this year. We probably could be in a Leinster final but for a decision or two.
“I haven’t looked back on Rory’s first tackle after 15 seconds yet but I’d a good view from where I was and it didn’t look to be that dangerous to warrant a yellow card after 15 seconds but these are the little things that cost you on a big day like today. You are not going to beat a team of Clare’s calibre with 14 men.”
Feeling the red card “ruined the game”, Rossiter continued: “I thought it was harsh. It meant Rory had to be on guard for the rest of the game. After 15 seconds, it’s a long oul stint to play. The second I was following the ball. I presume it was for a hook or a late tackle, something like that. Maybe that was a yellow but it was one of those things, it ruined the game.
“We fought on. We came in two points down at half time, had a good chat with the lads. We knew David McInerney was coming back on after four odd minutes (following a black card), we knew we were going to be in for a tough time after that. It was just a hard sucker punch to get. Especially when you’ve worked so hard to get back into it, because we didn’t start well. We were six points to one down at one stage. In fairness to the lads they worked hard to get themselves back into it.”
Reviewing the year, Rossiter referenced the harsh penalty call against them in the final Leinster SHC round game against Kilkenny and the recovery after the loss to Antrim in Corrigan Park.
“We had a long journey down from Belfast after Round 2. In fairness to the players, they answered everything back. We got Galway. Then we moved down to Carlow. Gave Kilkenny a lot of questions to answer in Nowlan Park as well. One or two decisions that had they gone the other way we could be in a Leinster final but that’s ifs and buts and coulds.
“Little things like that cost us all year. You go into the Kilkenny game, the last game of the (Leinster) championship and a penalty being awarded (for a foul) two or three yards outside of the box.
“You look at today, that first yellow card. I don’t know who is up there looking down on us not giving us the bit of luck but those are hard decisions to get over. I will have a couple of sleepless nights thinking about those. It is something that is not sitting that well with me at the minute.”