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Davy Fitzgerald has apologized to Wexford supporters after claiming his players raised “the white flag” in tonight’s Leinster semi-final loss to Galway.
“I suppose that for the first time in three years and little that I have been with Wexford we did not fight. We throw in the towel and that’s the end result. I have to apologize to the people of Wexford that we are not like that. We let them down today, we didn’t act, and raised our hands because we were absolutely terrible.
“We were shocking. Any team that you’ve beaten you want them to fight and do whatever it takes. We didn’t do that today and that’s not good enough as far as I’m concerned.
“The first 20 minutes we were there, we probably had two or three scoring chances. We retaliate when we shouldn’t have, but it’s small things. As the game progressed, the 50-50 battles won more and what bothers me the most is that we did not press in the last 15 or 20 minutes.
“We just raised the white flag and watched the game and that is very disappointing. There is no point in hiding when you have a performance like that; you get up and tell it like it is and that’s how we went and that’s the end of the story. “
With the playoff draw scheduled for Monday morning, Wexford now hopes to make his way out the back door, but Fitzgerald says his team must realize that what they produced tonight was unacceptable.
“Look, other teams have the same. I think Tipperary was beaten in a Munster final last year pretty well. I really don’t care what the result will be the next day; what worries me is if we will go out and fight. That’s the damn name of the game.
“It’s absolutely horrible and I’m not happy with it.
“I am disappointed in the guys because they really worked hard. I absolutely adore you guys, I have an amazing time for them, but that’s not acceptable what we did tonight. They are a great group, but it is not acceptable.
“You feel like your stomach hurts, it’s incredible. I can get over the beating, but we’re so much better than that.”
Fitzgerald did not want to take away the well-deserved Galway victory.
“I thought it was difficult for us to win free practice in the first 20 minutes. We were fouled, I thought, two or three times and we didn’t get the free games we deserved. That is a fact.
“Did it make a difference in the game? By no means, Galway was the 110% better team, but you might like a couple of breaks at the start when you know you’re in.
“I think you’ll see that we created three or four scoring chances at the beginning that we had to take advantage of. We create very little in the second half, maybe one or two. The guys were telling me that inside Galway we had 40 chances to score, we had 37 and you say to yourself, ‘God, it doesn’t feel like that.
The Clare native added: “It’s important that we get hurt after this. Trust me, it is one of the worst feelings you can have. We have more than 50 games and we have won the majority and this hurts.
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