Conway gets a late winner
wing and his brother, Matty, kept it in at the far post before Páraic Conway palmed the ball past Paul Foley.
Referee Billy Dodd blew for fulltime on the kick-out, and the upshot of it all is that Gusserane will face St. Anne’s in a repeat of the 2014 decider in the quarter-final.
Fethard will face familiar foes at the same stage in Castletown. It will be their fourth meeting in the last eight since 2010, with the Gorey District side romping to victory six years ago. Fethard turned the tables by a goal in 2013, while Castletown prevailed by a point last year.
Gusserane made good use of early wind advantage, moving 0-4 to nil clear by the ninth minute with half-backs Adrian Flynn (two) and Mark O’Neill on target along with Shane Cullen. The latter was deployed on the edge of the square but moved back to sweep when his team faced the elements after the break.
Another defender, Joe Sutton, opened the account for a Fethard side minus John Tubritt, Daniel Mullan, Daire Barden, Bryan Power and Rúairí Tubrid in the twelfth minute, and they settled down very well thereafter.
Indeed, Gusserane - without Seán Ryan - had cause for concern by the interval when they only led by 0-7 to 0-6. Shane Cullen (free), Páraic Conway and Adrian Flynn had added to their tally, but Kevin Rowe (free), Mikie Dwyer, Garrett Foley, Martin Power and Dwyer again responded.
Gusserane, who also finished with ten wides, introduced veteran Philip Wallace at full-forward for the second period and also brought on Adrian Redmond who contributed two vital points.
His first restored the lead after overlapping defender Seán Donohoe had brought Fethard level for the first time in the 32nd minute.
And Redmond’s opening score marked the start of a strong period for the eventual winners as Mark Rossiter converted a free before hitting a sweet effort from play to push them 10-7 clear despite playing into the wind.
They didn’t score for another 15 minutes though, but Fethard’s response rate wasn’t as rapid as they would have liked. Still, they eventually drew level on 0-10 each in the 57th minute after three points from talented teenager Mikie Dwyer, the first and last from play.
Adrian Redmond then stalled their momentum by restoring Gusserane’s lead after Philip Wallace initially found Adrian Flynn completely unmarked on a breakaway.
Joe Sutton’s goal looked to have swung the game decisively in Fethard’s favour, but there was another major twist before the finish. TWO TEAMS poles apart in terms of priorities met in the ultimate definition of a dead rubber in this fixture-fulfilling exercise in Group B of the Tom Doyle Supplies Senior football championship in Innovate Wexford Park on Saturday.
St. Martin’s were guaranteed to finish first regardless of the outcome, and they had bigger fish to fry as they discovered on Friday night that their quarter-final opponents will be St. James’ in a repeat of last year’s decider.
In contrast, Sarsfields found themselves in the no man’s land of fifth spot for the second year running, merely playing for pride in the jersey. And they could also console themselves to some extent in the fact that a very young squad had preserved the second-best record of Senior survival in the county.
The Wexford town team have now played in the top flight every year since 1980, and only Castletown - competing at Senior since 1961 which is a tremendous achievement - have a better record.
St. Martin’s decided to rest all of their Minors for this game given their punishing schedule and this, coupled with defender Mark Maloney’s wedding and some injuries, left them low in numbers.