Connolly stars as DIT rout Wexford

DUBLIN senior Diarmuid Connolly fired 1-7 as DIT completely outclassed a poor Wexford outfit in a lopsided O’Byrne Cup opening round tie at Enniscorthy yesterday afternoon.

Connolly, who returned to Pat Gilroy’s senior setup this week, was in excellent form and along with Mayo duo Aidan O’Shea and Alan Freeman, he dismantled the home side’s defence.

DIT raced three points clear early on, before Connolly blasted a penalty to the net for their first goal in the 9th minute.

The third-level outfit side led 1-6 to 0-0 before Wexford finally opened their account in the 17th minute through Ben Brosnan.

However DIT resumed theirdominance to lead 1-10 to 0-2 at the interval and maintained the initiative in the second-half with substitute Cathal McHugh firing in their second goal in the 53rd minute.

Connolly had another chance from the penalty spot in the 70th minute but his shot cannoned off the crossbar and over for a point, as DIT strolled to a quarter-final meeting with either Dublin or Westmeath.

The Carlow full forward line hit 5-7 from play as Luke Dempsey’s men destroyed neighbours Kilkenny in a pedestrian O’Byrne Cup opening round tie yesterday afternoon at Dr Cullen Park. Full-forward Thomas Walsh led the way with 2-3 while Cormac Mullins recorded 2-2 and Ciarán Pender was on the mark with 1-2.

The opening half was evenly contested with Kilkenny confining the home county to 1-6 while recording 0-4 themselves.

All of Kilkenny’s overall tally came from left corner-forward Graham Lawlor with the Railyard clubman

hitting two of his eight points from play. Although Lawlor pointed a Kilkenny free for the first score of the second-half, Carlow went on to dominate the half with Pender’s goal in the 45th minute putting his side 2-7 to 0-6 ahead. Thomas Walsh did not register his first score – a point – until the 58th minute but went on to add a further 2-2 before the end as Carlow set up a last eight meeting with Meath or UCD.

In the other O’Byrne Cup game yesterday, Louth were comfortable winners over Athlone IT in Drogheda by 2-15 to 0-4 and will now be at home to Mick O’Dwyer’s Wicklow next Sunday afternoon in the last eight.

Meanwhile, substitute Fiachra Deasmhumnaigh was the hero for NUI Galway as he landed a late point to secure a 0-11 to 0-1 victory over Sligo IT in an entertaining FBD League clash at Dangan yesterday.

The Cork native kicked the decisive point from the right-wing as the game slipped into stoppage time.

NUI Galway, managed by former Mayo boss John Maughan, should have wrapped up the issue long before that but they failed to turn their thirdquarter dominance into scores.

Mayo player Jason Doherty was their main scoring threat as he kicked seven points from frees in an impressive display while his county colleague Neil Douglas came good in the second-half.

Sligo IT enjoyed good spells in the opening-half with Monaghan’s Gary White kicking three excellent points from play.

But Doherty landed five frees for NUIG in the opening half to ensure that the sides were deadlocked 0-6 each at the break.

Sligo IT looked set for victory when they lead by 0-10 to 0-8 with six minutes remaining but NUIG, with Mayo star Peadar Gardiner dominant at wing-back, hit back to secure victory.