Rueful Offaly settle for share of spoils with 13-man Wexford

Coming off the back of a defeat to Waterford, the Faithful men played all the quality hurling only for 14 wides to scupper their hopes

Sat, 10 Feb, 2024 - 19:33

Brendan Furlong

Wexford 0-20 Offaly 1-17

WHEN the final whistle sounded there were mixed emotions in the stand as a last-gasp Seamus Casey point saw Wexford force a dramatic draw with Offaly in this exciting Division 1 Group A game played at Wexford Park.

Offaly had edged themselves into a two point lead as the game moved into additional time and looked set to bring off a shock result when 13-man Wexford battled back for a Lee Chin pointed free, with Casey bringing the sides level with less than one of the five additional minutes left to play.

Wexford had a chance to snatch a last-second winner but Simon Donohoe saw his point attempt drift wide of the left post, leaving Offaly relieved but still wondering as to how they let two points slip from their grasp.

Wexford were offered a test of character particularly when they had sub Jack O'Connor, only on the pitch two minutes, straight red carded for interference with a helmet, but more was to follow with Charlie McGuckin following on a second yellow card offence with two minutes of normal time remaining.

In truth Offaly deserved to take both points from this game. Coming off the back of a defeat to Waterford, they played all the quality hurling, showed a huge workrate, and but for their inaccurate finishing, a total of fourteen wides to the home side's eight, they would have been comfortably in front.

Offaly's graph rose after a fine start moving into 0-4 to 0-1 lead inside seven minutes through Duignan, a free and 65, Ben Conneely and Cillian Kiely. It was Chin's pointed frees that kept Wexford in contention but it was still Offaly who led 0-11 to 0-9 at the interval.

Little was to separate the sides but when Wexford struck for three unanswered points midway through the second period through Mark Fanning, Casey and a Chin free to lead 0-18 to 0-15 after 60 minutes Wexford looked in control.

Offaly got a crucial breakthrough with nine minutes remaining when Charlie Mitchell put Duignan in for a goal, and they looked like holding out until Wexford's late surge.

Wexford: M Fanning (0-1 free), N Murphy, C Foley, S Reck; C McGuickin (0-1), D Reck, C Molloy (0-1); C Byrne-Dunbar (0-1), C Hearne; T Kinsella (0-1), L Chin (0-8, 7f), K Foley; C Byrne (0-1), R Lawlor (0-2), S Casey (0-2). Subs: Jack O'Connor for Kinsella (44), J Byrne (0-1) for C Byrne (56), C Dunbar for Byrne-Dunbar (64), S Donohoe for Hearne (68), Joe O'Connor for Molloy (70).

Offaly: M Troy; B Conneely (0-1), C Burke, S Bourke; J Sampson, C Kiely (0-3, 2f), K Sampson (0-1); C King, D King (0-2); D Nally, E Kelly, J Clancy (0-1); C Mitchell (0-2), B Duignan (1-7, 4f, 2, 65s), A Screeney. Subs: D Bourke for Clancy (58), M Watkins for Screeney (58), D Ravenhill for Kelly (64).

Referee: S Stack (Dublin).