Pat Ryan on Declan Dalton's red card, Cork's big win over Wexford and Fitzgibbon Cup action

Cork’s Allianz National Hurling League clash with Wexford at Chadwicks Wexford Park went as many predicted in advance.

It was a game the Rebels were always expected to win for a number of reasons. It was no secret that Wexford were missing key players, through injury, travel and retirement. So a difficult task was made harder, as they came up against a Cork side that are simply in a better position at the moment.

It would have been a shock had the Rebels not headed back down the road with the points secured and once Padraig Power got their first goal it really was a case of how much they were going to win by, rather than if.

In the end, the scoreline of 2-21 to 0-12 tells its own story and shows the gap between the two sides at the moment. It may have been closer had the likes of Lee Chin been available, but Cork would have still taken the points.

Manager Pat Ryan said he was happy enough with the game, but there were areas of Cork’s play that were not where he would have liked it to be, especially early on.

“I’m happy enough, we haven’t played many matches so I thought we were a bit rusty at times,” said Ryan.

“We know that Wexford are depleted at the moment but from our point of view we probably weren’t as sharp as we should have been in the first 15 or 16 minutes.

“It was 0-4 to 0-2 at that stage and we hadn’t made the most of the elements but once we opened up, I thought we played some very good hurling and there were some good performances out there but look it’s the first game of the league. That’ll hopefully sharpen us up as we move forward.”

Cork had some superb displays with Brian Hayes, Cormac O’Brien and Niall O’Leary probably the pick of them.

"Yeah we had some very good performances. Those three fellas have a good bit of training, they have been there all the time and that is what you want at this time of year.

The Munster League is a bit of a loss, it gives you a bit of structure in what you’re doing, gives fellas game time that they mightn’t see in the league and to wear the jersey in a proper game.

“As I said we haven’t played a lot of matches, we’ve a lot of fellas, 16, 17, with Sars and the Fitzgibbon and left them away all along so we’ve trained with 23, 24. Look, they’re all positives and we’re moving forward.”

OFF

During the game both Rob Downey and Sean O’Donoghue had to go off with knocks and then Declan Dalton was sent off, with Rory O’Connor, both receiving straight red cards.

“O’Donoghue has a small bit of a groin thing and Rob went over on his ankle, a small bit of a thing. Look, obviously Deccy and Rory were sent off. 

I’m not sure there was much in it, to be honest with you. We’ll look at the video and see if we can do anything with that."

Coming up next for Cork are Limerick next Saturday night at SuperValu Páirc Ui Chaoimh and Ryan said he was looking forward to what is a huge game for both sides.

“We played Limerick there two years ago and there were 20,000 there so in fairness the Cork fans will always come out when they’re home and in fairness to Limerick they have a fantastic following and rightly so with the team that they have.

“It’s a huge game next week but we’ll regroup, see what injuries we have and get back into the gym on Monday night and see where we go.”