Wexford SHC: St Martin's and Naomh Eanna through to semi-finals

THE 'dual' attacking threat of Joe Coleman and Rory O'Connor fired St. Martin's to a rather flattering ten point, 1-22 to 0-16, victory over Crossabeg-Ballymurn in their Wexford senior hurling championship quarter-final at Chadwicks Wexford Park.

CLUB DUTY: Rory O'Connor. Pic: ©INPHO/Ken Sutton

THE 'dual' attacking threat of Joe Coleman and Rory O'Connor fired St. Martin's to a rather flattering 10 point, 1-22 to 0-16, victory over Crossabeg-Ballymurn in their Wexford senior hurling championship quarter-final at Chadwicks Wexford Park.

Coleman showed accuracy personified from placed ball, as he finished the game with a personal tally of 0-12, 10 frees and 1, 65, while O'Connor shone through the sixty minutes, finishing the game with 0-5, the points arriving from a variety of angles.

The Crosabeg-Ballymurn fateful may have felt their side was in a real chance of upsetting the favourites as they led 0-5 to 0-4 after twelve minutes, playing into the breeze, with Mark Byrne hitting over four of their opening points from frees.

While St. Martin's have been indifferent in their path to the quarter-final, they began to show the consistency their game needed as O'Connor, Coleman and Luke Kavanagh continued to find the target, while it was Byrne point along with two efforts from Evan Kinlough that kept the opposition in contention restricting the eventual winners lead to a single point lead at the interval, 0-11 to 0-10.

Last year's beaten finalists, St.Martin's, however, turned in a strong second half performance, building up a 0-16 to 1-12 lead by the forty-second minute.

Finding difficulty in utilising the strong second half breeze, Crossabeg-Ballymury with Byrne firing over three pointed frees reduced the deficit to the minimum, 0-16 to 0-15, at the end of the third quarter.

But it was Coleman and O'Connor who proved the difference in the closing quarter with a string of points, while they closed out the game with an additional time goal from Kyle Firman.

A sharper Naomh Eanna overpowered champions of 2021, Enniscorthy Rapparees as they drove on to an impressive 2-19 to 2-15 victory in their quarter-final clash.

Powered on by a Padraig Doyle goal after twenty minutes, to lead 1-6 to 0-2, they also missed out on two clear-cut goal opportunities during this opening spell of dominance.

Rapparees were kept in the game through Oisin Pepper accuracy from frees, while a Lennie Connolly goal brought them right back into the game. It was Naomh Eanna who finished the half strongest aided by an Aodhan Doyle goal to lead 2-8 to 1-5 at the interval.

While Rapparres, through Pepper and Kevin Foley managed to reduce the deficit to a single point with twelve minutes remaining, Naomh Eanna held off the challenge helped by points from Conor McDonald, Padraig Doyle and Jack Cullen, with Liam Ryan's late goal from a free arriving too late to affect the end result, with Naomh Eanna now setting up a mouth-watering semi-final clash with St.Martin's.

Oylegate-Glenbrien caused a major shock when a stirring second half saw them dethrone reigning champions Ferns St. Aidans with three points to spare in their quarter-final clash at Chadwicks Wexford Park.

Ferns were warm favourites going into this game but they met a stubborn resistance from the challengers in the opening thirty minutes at the end of which the sides were level 0-10 each.

It was Ian Byrne pointed frees that kept the title holders in the game but with Seamus Casey matching his opposite number the challengers were lifted through some sterling defensive play.

Great points from Casey, Jamie Reck and Mikie Kelly had Oylegate leading 0-15 to 0-12 at the end of the third quarter.

The sides were deadlocked 0-16 each when Casey cut through the opposing defence to fire home a goal with two minutes remaining, with the Ferns challenge failing to produce a levelling goal in the closing minutes.

It was a personal triumph for Casey who finished the game with 1-8, 7 frees, while at the opposite end Ian Byrne had 0-8, 7 frees, but had three crucial second half frees wide.

Two splendid goals from inter-county star Liam Og McGovern helped St. Anne's to a 3-26 to 1-29 victory after extra time in their quarter-final clash, after the sides finished level 1-20 each at the end of normal time.

Semi-Final pairings: St. Anne's v Oylegate-Glenbrien; St. Martin's v Naomh Eanna.