Galway left frustrated as three late Lee Chin points snatches draw for Wexford
HEAD TO HEAD: Wexford's Lee Chin gets up close and personal with Fintan Burke of Galway in their Leinster SHC Round 1 match at Chadwicks Wexford Park in Wexford.
Three injury-time points from Wexford sub Lee Chin sensationally denied Henry Shefflin a first championship win as Galway manager.
Sprung from the bench midway through the second half, Chin struck five points upon his introduction, including the last four scores of this Leinster championship round-robin opener.
Chin’s second narrowed the Galway advantage to three as proceedings entered the five second half additional minutes signalled for by the fourth official.
Another Chin free on 71 minutes further eroded the Galway lead and the hosts were within the minimum of their opponents on 75 minutes when Chin pointed from play after referee Thomas Walsh took a free off Galway as he deemed Conor Cooney to have taken too long. Possession from the resultant throw-in fell to Chin and he split the posts.
Although five minutes of injury-time had now elapsed, Walsh allowed play to continue and Wexford had their shot at an equaliser when Damien Reck was fouled in the middle of the park.
Step forward once again Chin, the impact sub holding his nerve to secure Wexford a most unlikely draw.
Having gone in front in the third minute, Wexford never again led this contest. Indeed, after Brian Concannon’s fifth minute goal for Galway, Wexford were never closer than two points until the 75th minute.
Galway, who led by six turning around for the second period, will be sick at having failed to protect a winning hand. Their lead was still at six on 63 minutes when Conor McDonald somehow got his shot away amid a thicket of bodies to find the net and make it a one score game, 1-18 to 1-15.
Galway midfielder Thomas Monaghan responded with his fourth from play to shove Galway four ahead on 66 minutes, but it was to prove their last score in the south east.
The visitors will rue a missed goal chance just five minutes earlier when Joseph Cooney opted to shoot rather than pass inside to the unmarked Conor Cooney. The midfielder’s shot was deflected out for a ‘65 by Matthew O’Hanlon, and although Conor Cooney did convert this ‘65, a goal here would have buried the Model County.
It was a minor miracle that Wexford found themselves only six behind at the interval, the home side oh so poor across an opening 35 minutes where their withdrawn and heavily populated middle third approach did not have whatever effect management had hoped for.
Their opponents, meanwhile, will have been rightly fuming with themselves at being only six in front having done all the hurling in the first half.
The visitors’ Achilles heel was unquestionably their wayward shooting, Henry Shefflin’s charges registering 10 wides inside the opening 22 minutes. Conor Cooney was responsible for four of these, the centre-forward missing the target with a sideline, free, and ‘65 early on.
Had even half of Galway’s 10 misses sailed between Mark Fanning’s posts then the Tribesmen would have been out the gap by the time Thomas Walsh sounded his interval whistle.
The Galway goal arrived in the fifth minute, the county’s opening score after already tallying four wides. The green flag emanated from an Evan Niland turnover in the Galway half of the field, possession was then worked to Cooney whose lengthy run ended with the offload to finisher Brian Concannon.
Concannon could have had a second goal later in the half, his shot on that occasion flashing over the Wexford crossbar. Outside of him and Cooney’s four converted placed-ball efforts, Conor Whelan was the other Galway forward to cause problems for the home defence.
At the other end of the field, Wexford full-forward Conor McDonald, while to be commended for constantly offering himself as a target man, was routinely outnumbered by white shirts.
Case in point was his white flag attempt which dropped short on 25 minutes.
After gathering possession, McDonald immediately found himself set upon by four white shirts. His nearest Wexford colleague might as well have been standing in Enniscorthy they were so far removed from the outnumbered McDonald. And while the full-forward made enough space for himself to swing, his shot fell well short such was the pressure he was under.
Wexford might have had a goal in first half stoppages, Mark Fanning’s penalty, after Gearoid McInerney fouled McDonald, blazed over.
The ensuing restart was intercepted by Rory O’Connor who struck another Wexford point to narrow the deficit to five, 1-10 to 0-8, before Conor Cooney’s third free left the interval gap at six.
The deficit had been halved to three as the board flashed for five second-half minutes of injury time, sub Lee Chin then single-handedly securing a Wexford draw that felt very much like a home win.
R O’Connor (0-6, 5 frees); C McDonald (1-2); L Chin (0-5 3 frees, 0-1 ‘65), O Foley (0-2); M Fanning (0-1, pen), S Donohoe, C Flood, C Dunbar (0-1 each).
: C Cooney (0-8, 4 frees, 0-3 ‘65s); T Monaghan (0-4); B Concannon (1-1); C Whelan (0-3); J Cooney (0-2); D Morrissey, C Mannion (0-1 each).
: M Fanning; M O’Hanlon, L Ryan, S Donohoe; C Flood, P Foley, D Reck; K Foley, D O’Keeffe; L Óg McGovern, O Foley, C McGuckin; M Dwyer, C McDonald, R O’Connor.
: C Dunbar for Dwyer (45); L Chin for O Foley (47); J O’Connor for McGuckin (53); O Pepper for K Foley (66).
: É Murphy; J Grealish, D Burke, D Morrissey; P Mannion, G McInerney, F Burke; J Cooney, T Monaghan; C Mannion, C Cooney, C Fahy; E Niland, B Concannon, C Whelan.
: G Lee for Niland (54); David Burke for Whelan (60, inj); K Cooney for Fahy (66); J Hastings for Concannon (73); J Coen for F Burke (76).
: T Walsh (Waterford).
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