The night U20s put Kildare hurling on the map with Wexford knockout

“It’s not about today,” said manager Pat English. “It’s about the 10 years of work that is after going in.”

“Teams hate coming to Newbridge and we have to keep it that way,” said manager Pat English. Photo by Matt Browne/Sportsfile

It took Kildare almost 70 minutes, including injury time, to defeat Wexford and cause the shock of this year’s U20 Hurling Championship — but it took the best part of a decade to get the team in a place to compete with the best players in Leinster.

This was no ordinary Wexford team. They started with eight players who were part of the team that beat Kilkenny in the 2019 Leinster minor final to bring a first Leinster title at that grade back to their county since 1985. 

Outside of Kildare, it will be seen as a stunning upset and confirmation of the strides being made within the county at underage level but within the four walls of their dressing room, nobody was too surprised. They knew they were good and just needed the chance to prove it.

In the same year as Wexford’s Leinster minor title, Kildare beat the likes of Antrim, Offaly, and Laois, amongst others, on their way to the semi-final where they were only beaten by Kilkenny. Tuesday’s win was just another step along the path envisaged for this group.

“It’s not about today,” said manager Pat English afterwards. “It’s about the 10 years of work that is after going in, places like Naas, Celbridge, Maynooth, Éire Óg, all over the county. Congratulations to parents, to the mentors, the clubs all over the county, this is their day,” added the man whose father, Jim, won three All-Ireland titles with Wexford in the 1950s and captained the 1956 winning team.

To beat Wexford with 15 men on the field for the duration of the game would have been an astonishing result; to win as Kildare did, after Harry Dunne was sent off in the 27th minute and John McKeown in injury time, was scarcely credible. 

English praised his team for keeping their cool and also being able to up their work rate to make up for their numerical disadavantage.

“We knew that if we kept our cool and hurled on the edge we would actually handle Wexford. Teams hate coming to Newbridge and we have to keep it that way. It was a serious, serious performance, some serious scores there. We didn’t give them the handy scores they thought they were going to get,” said English.

Despite Kildare’s best efforts, they began to tire in the final minutes and when Wexford led for the first time in the fourth minute of injury time, it looked like Kildare would fall short. But incredibly they came up with two scores.

“There’s no difference in being level, a point down, a point up, you just have to keep going until the final whistle. The lads showed their strength, their character, and their ability to keep going. They never panicked and just kept working the ball,” said English.

The man who came up with those two winning scores, Liam Dempsey, comes from a hurling family. His father, Joe, played senior championship hurling in Kildare for Éire Óg/Corra Choill until he was nearly 50 and he was beaming with pride in Newbridge at Liam’s heroics.

Kildare now play Offaly in the Leinster quarter-final next Tuesday in O’Connor Park, Tullamore.