Hat-trick hero Morrow steers Derry to fourth League Cup

Wexford Youths 1 Derry City 6

Sammy Morrow scored a hat-trick as Derry City cruised to a remarkable fourth League Cup victory in a row.

The win books Derry's qualification for next season's Setanta Sports Cup and keeps them on course for a cup treble.

Though terrific hosts, First Division Wexford's gallant run to the final ended in misery as they froze on the night.

An incredible opening to the match saw the crowd of 3,000 witness six goals inside the opening half hour.

A defensively nervous Wexford were clinically punished as they found themselves 2-0 down inside 18 minutes.

The sheer pace of Niall McGinn orchestrated the first on 14 minutes before he added a second.

The left winger beat defenders Keith Kearney and Paul Rossiter to get to the byline and cross for Morrow who curled a shot to the far corner of Pat Doyle's net from a tight angle.

A terrific solo effort then saw McGinn play a one-two with Kevin McHugh before slaloming through the Wexford defence to fire home the second.

Wexford hit back on 25 minutes to delight of the big home crowd.

A sublime ball form Conor Sinnott put Gavin Doyle away down the right and his low cross was swept home by Danny Furlong.

A stunning long-range strike from midfielder Kevin Deery restored Derry's two goal lead within a minute, however.

Scarcely could you look away and Derry had scored again; McHugh threading the ball through for Morrow to shoot to the corner of the net.

It was 5-1 on the half hour when McHugh again provided the assist for the pace of McGinn who raced in to squeeze the ball past Doyle at his right-hand post.

Morrow completed his hat-trick with the only goal of the second half on 70 minutes.

Wexford failed to clear Deery's corner and Morrow's downward header from 12 yards found the net through a forest of legs.