Carty penalty propels Wexford past Carlow

A SCORING burst in the last seven minutes of the first half, in which the eventual winners scored 1-3 without reply, proved decisive as Wexford ran out worthy winners in the Leinster U21FC semi-final in Portlaoise last night.

Carlow started brightly and with Darragh Foley dominating at midfield they built up a handsome 0-5 to 0-1 lead by the 22nd minute.

Ominously for them Foley was their main scoring threat and when Wexford’s Brendan Halpin was upended in the square in the 29th minute Conor Carty buried the penalty to give his side a 1-4 to 0-5 interval lead.

Two points from Emmet Kent and one each by Conor Carty and Kevin O’Grady, stretched the Wexford lead to seven points in the second-half.

Carlow produced a late rally as Foley notched three points from frees to narrow the gap to four points with six minutes left to play.

However, Kent popped up to ease Wexford nerves and ease the Model County into the decider in two weeks time.

Scorers for Wexford: C. Carty 1-1 (pen and free), E.Kent 0-3, (1f), K. O’Grady 0-2, M.O’Hanlon 0-1, M.O’Regan 0-1, B.Halpin 0-1, K.Kehoe 0-1.

Scorers for Carlow: D.Foley 0-8 (7fs), K.McCabe 0-1.

WEXFORD: R.Farrell; M.Furlong, S. Gaule, C.Carty; D. Butler, J. Leacy, J.Breen; M. O’Hanlon, ,M. O’Regan ; L. Óg McGovern, E. Kent, P. Kelly; K. O’Grady, K.Kehoe, B. Halpin.

Subs: Declan Murphy for Butler (40mins), Tiernan Rossiter for Halpin (54mins), Aidan Jones for O’Grady (58mins), D. Cullen for O’Regan (59mins)

CARLOW: B.Doyle; R. Mahon, C. Lawler , J. Kenny; J. Byrne, B. Lambe, J. Kane; H. Gahan, D. Foley: P. McElligot, K. McCabe, E. Ruth; D. Kehoe, R.Power, E.Byrne.

Subs: D. Roberts for Kehoe (H/T), M.Ware for Power (41mins), E. McGrath for E. Byrne (43mins), C.Byrne for Kane (49mins), C. Breathnach for Ruth (60mins).

Referee: Fergal Kelly (Longford).