Louth rue bad misses as Wexford retain title
WEXFORD LOUTH 2-12 0-9
THE DIFFERENCE between accurate and misfiring forwards was never more clearly illustrated than in Dowdallshill on Tuesday when Wexford retained the Leinster Junior football championship crown for the first time ever with a double scores victory over wasteful Louth.
The attacking trio of Seán ‘Mini’ Ryan, Conor Sinnott and Niall Harney were on fire as they shared all but one point of the winning tally of 2-12, whereas the home players struggled badly in front of the posts all night and finished the hour with an ugly 19 wides.
Incredibly, eleven of those misses came before they finally opened their account with a 22nd-minute point from Dean Maguire. And although they did settle down somewhat and managed to get within one point of Wexford early in the second-half, the holders remained composed and put the outcome beyond any doubt with a second goal from Ryan near the end.
It was the first final clash between the counties since Wexford’s 0-8 to 0-6 win in Croke Park in 1984, and the outcome gave the Slaneysiders an eighth title in all and a crack at Connacht champions Mayo in the All-Ireland semi-final on July 23.
The visitors got off the mark inside 90 seconds when Niall Harney split the posts after a one-two with Conor Sinnott. In contrast, the Wee county shot their first wide from Tadhg McEneaney in the third minute, and they kept coming from a variety of sources.
By the end of the game no fewer than seven players had contributed to their tally of misses, with McEneaney and full-forward Darragh Lafferty leading the way on four apiece.
Some of the early attempts simply had to be seen to be believed, and Wexford were a lot more adept at taking their chances. Seán Ryan and Niall Hughes did contribute to their own wides tally of nine before Ian Carty doubled the lead in the ninth minute with a good kick from just inside the 45-metre line.
The Taghmon-Camross youngster drifted out from his starting berth in the corner, giving the deadly duo of Ryan and Sinnott the space to work their magic inside.
Ryan didn’t score before the break despite posing a constant threat, but he picked off four beauties in the second-half. Operating with little room to manoeuvre at times, all he needed was to get the ball in a one-on-one situation with direct opponent David Finn as his supreme accuracy did the rest.
Finn and corner-back Hugh Osbourne had switched early on to pick up Sinnott and Ryan respectively, and both endured torrid evenings.
Sinnott did strike the third Wexford wide before he supplied the last pass for Niall Harney to make it 3-0 in the 15th minute after good work by wing-back Paul Curtis.
The fourth of five first-half wides followed from Eoin Roche - after three in quick succession at the other end - before Wexford unlocked the Louth defence for their opening goal in the 20th minute.
Seán Ryan still had a lot of ground between him and the posts after Niall Hughes played the ball into his path, but he had the confidence to take on and beat Hugh Osbourne for pace before slotting a low shot under netminder Kevin Brennan at his near post.
Louth reacted by introducing experienced former Senior regular Ronan Carroll at centre-forward, and he made an immediate impact. After starting the move leading up to Dean Maguire’s opening point, he picked off a score himself when Daniel O’Connell caught the resultant kick-out (1-3 to 0-2).
Maguire soloed in from the left and fisted another point which was quickly cancelled out by a good solo effort from Seán Ryan.
However, a couple of late Louth points from O’Connell and Maguire ensured that just two divided them at the break, with Niall Harney kicking the fifth Wexford wide while only a stray handpass by Darragh Lafferty prevented a possible goal for the home side.
There was an odd occurrence before the second-half throw-in as all of the other players and officials were in their starting positions for a couple of minutes before late arrival Dean Maguire finally emerged from the dressing-room and play could commence.
And Louth had the gap down to one after a mere 51 seconds after Darragh Lafferty tapped over a close-in free, ensuring that Wexford wouldn’t have it all their own way.
Jamie Carty - the goalscoring hero in last year’s final win over Meath - had been introduced at half-time, while Tom Byrne was next to enter the fray. However, the substitute making the biggest impact was James Stafford who came on near the end of the third quarter and proceeded to play a huge role in several vital scores.
Prior to that Conor Sinnott’s first point, from a free off the ground after a foul on Byrne, made it 1-5 to 0-6, and sub Jamie Carty also set up Seán Ryan’s second white flag with a strong run.
Paul Curtis provided the assist for Niall Harney to widen the gap to four, but Darragh Lafferty stopped the rot from a placed ball for Louth (1-7 to 0-7).
An uncharacteristic wide followed from Ryan, the first of four from Wexford after the break, but the impact of substitute James Stafford was immediate.
His first touch found Conor Sinnott who kicked a beautiful point from a tight angle and, after Seán Hand earned and converted a Louth free, the Stafford-Sinnott double act produced the same outcome again in the 47th minute (1-9 to 0-8).
A foul on Ian Carty gave Sinnott the chance to stretch the lead further, but Louth substitute Matt Corcoran cancelled that out shortly after his introduction.
An attempted Ryan pass to Sinnott was intercepted as Wexford sought the game-clinching goal, with Sinnott and Harney following up with wides before the latter passed crossfield to the St. Fintan’s ace who calmly did the rest (1-11 to 0-9).
The visitors’ superiority was emphasised in the 57th minute with that contest-ending second goal. James Stafford robbed Niall Sharkey of the ball, played it to Sinnott, got the return, and then fed Ryan who blasted home from close range to ensure that the cup was returning to the south-east for a second year on the trot.
A Ryan wide and a Sinnott point, from Jamie Carty’s pass, followed before the finish.