Wexford escape the drop after epic battle with Kilkenny swings their way
SAFETY SECURED: Lee Chin of Wexford celebrates with supporters. Pic: Eóin Noonan/Sportsfile
Wexford secured their place in next year’s Leinster Senior Hurling Championship with a two-point defeat of rivals and neighbours Kilkenny on Sunday afternoon. That’s the simple version. The full story was far more dramatic.
This was hurling on speed. A head-spinning afternoon of pummelling entertainment and nerves with Darragh Egan’s men ultimately claiming the win that prevented them from dropping down into the depths of the Joe McDonagh Cup.
Antrim’s win in Mullingar meant that this was win or bust and they did it on the back of a dreadful first-half that saw them trail Kilkenny – who still go through to the Leinster final in spite of this loss – by eight points through the opening quarter.
It wasn’t perfect hurling from either side but the scenes that spilled onto the field from the sidelines afterwards showed exactly how much this meant to the players, their fans and the county at large. They looked into the darkness but eventually saw the light.
The question now – or in a few days’ time when the adrenaline wears off – must be how they found themselves in such a predicament in the first place. And that’s a deeper dig than last week’s capitulation to Westmeath.
Boil it all down and this was a celebration of a team that is now out of the All-Ireland Championship at the provincial stage.
Traffic congestion caused a ten-minute delay to the 20m throw-in, and a good opportunity to see how the Westmeath-Antrim tie was shaping up, and it looked grim for Wexford through a first quarter that was dominated by Kilkenny.
Eoin Cody had the visitors’ first goal claimed within two minutes and Martin Keoghan repeated the dose with less than five minutes on the clock. Half-a-dozen points down was bad enough for Wexford. Worse was the fact that Antrim were up by something similar.
The trapdoor was wide open.
Kilkenny’s hunger for three-pointers is ingrained into their culture. They went for more again in the course of the opening half but Billy Drennan, Tom Phelan, David Blanchfield and TJ Reid all found the route blocked when an easy point was on the plate.
That profligacy didn’t look like being all that important through the first quarter where Wexford conceded short puck-outs but still couldn’t plug near enough gaps at the back. Their shooting was off-target too often as well.
Down by eight points after 17 minutes, they started to turn things around with a penalty from Jack O’Connor. A big goal from a man whose miss from the spot against Westmeath last week was so instrumental in allowing that epic comeback.
When Kevin Foley claimed another goal from play minutes later, the chase was well and truly on. The crowd of 9,725 finally found its voice and all the more so probably for the news that Westmeath had turned it around and would claim a two-point half-time lead.
Wexford outscored their rivals by 2-6 to three points in that second quarter, drawing level two minutes before the 35 elapsed and creeping a point in front in injury-time through Diarmuid O’Keeffe’s first contribution to the scoreboard.
A full day had already been wedged into one half of hurling but news that Antrim had started the second-half in Mullingar like a train only confirmed that the best – or worst – was likely yet to come in the southeast.
The Ulster side eventually streaked away to a double-digit win but there was hardly time or space to look at a phone or listen to a radio here as the game turned one way and then the other before falling Wexford’s way.
The home team’s recovery from that slow start looked complete when they led by seven points nine minutes into the second-half, their advantage built on a period where they had claimed 4-8 to just four in reply from Kilkenny, Liam Og McGovern claiming the next two goals.
Back came Derek Lyng’s side, Kilkenny blitzing their hosts for 2-5 to 0-4 in the space of just eleven minutes with Cody claiming the second of his three goals and Tom Phelan capping a superb display with one of his own.
A Conor Delaney point drew them level but it seemed scarcely believable that, after all the drama to that point, there were still a dozen minutes and, as it turned out, untold drama, still to unfold before the thing was done.
Cody’s hat-trick soon after put the Cats ahead by two points but Wexford finished the stronger with five points countered by a single TJ Reid free. Dig deeper and there were even more layers to it than that.
Padraig Walsh had a shot signalled wide that looked good to the player, his manager and more than a few others. Then Alan Murphy found the net for what would have been the winner had the referee not called a free out a millisecond earlier.
Who said the Leinster Championship isn’t where it’s at?
L Chin (0-10, 0-6 frees, 0-1 ‘65’); L Og McGovern (2-1); K Foley (1-1); R O’Connor (0-4); Jack O’Connor (1-0 penalty); C Dunbar (0-2, 0-1 sideline); O Foley (0-2); L Ryan, D O’Keeffe, C McDonald (all 0-1).
E Cody (3-1): TJ Reid (0-7, 0-4 frees, 0-1 ‘65’); T Phelan (1-4); M Keoghan (1-0); P Walsh, A Mullen, W Walsh, A Murphy, C Delaney and B Ryan (all 0-1).
 J Lawlor; Joe O’Connor, L Ryan, C Devitt; S Donohoe, M O’Hanlon, I Carty; D O’Keeffe, K Foley; Jack O’Connor, L Og McGovern, O Foley; R O’Connor, C McDonald, L Chin.
Subs: C Foley for Joe O’Connor (19); C Dunbar for Jack O’Connor (55); C Hearne for Foley (65).
E Murphy; M Butler, H Lawlor, T Walsh; D Blanchfield, P Walsh, D Corcoran; A Mullen, W Walsh; T Phelan, J Donnelly, B Drennan; M Keoghan, TJ Reid, E Cody.
C Delaney for Butler (13); B Ryan for Keoghan (14); C Fogarty for Mullen (25); A Murphy for Drennan (49); C Buckley for Walsh (66); M Dwyer for McGovern (69).
C Lyons (Cork).
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