NEWS IN BRIEF

BACK IN BUSINESS: Two wins in the space of four days put Wexford Youths back in business in Division 1 of the SSE Airtricity League of Ireland, as they closed the margin on Finn Harps at the top to just one point.

First up was a home clash with Athlone Town - abandoned at half-time a few weeks earlier owing to a problem with the generator powering the floodlights.

Although scoreless at the interval, Wexford took the lead in the 56th minute courtesy of Conor English’s first-ever goal in senior competition.

And they ended with a 2-0 winning margin after a long throw by Craig McCabe was headed into his own net by Brian Shortall.

That victory teed the team up nicely for the trip to Ballybofey to face leaders Finn Harps just three nights later.

And a superb double strike by Andy Mulligan was the difference between the teams as Youths triumphed 3-1 following their finest display of the season thus far.

They had taken the lead when a Danny Furlong free-kick took a wicked deflection and wrong-footed the Harps netminder.

Mulligan headed in a Conor English cross to make it 2-0 at the interval and, although Kevin McHugh pulled one back, the insurance goal arrived in the 71st minute.

It was fashioned when Mulligan swept Furlong’s cross high into the net, matching his feat of seven days earlier when he had also scored a double in the 3-2 loss to Shelbourne.

JASON JOINT FIRST: A dramatic puissance competition saw Wexford’s Jason Higgins finish as joint winner of Jumping In The City, the second leg of the new summer showjumping series that was held in Cork’s greyhound stadium.

He was riding Hadine Van’t Zorgvliet, a horse owned by fellow Wexford native Bertram Allen.

ROWE TREBLE: A second-half Kevin Rowe hat-trick led to a 3-11 to 0-12 win for the Wexford Junior footballers in their Leinster semi-final clash with Longford in Glennon Brothers Pearse Park.

The accuracy of the Fethard man ensured a first appearance in the decider since 2007, after the county had failed to win a game in the grade since then prior to the 2015 first round versus Wicklow.

Wexford: Anthony Masterson; Robbie Vallejo (0-1), Jim Rossiter, Páraic O’Keeffe (0-1); Graham Carty, James Breen, Paul Curtis; Jamie Carty, Jim White; Niall Harney (0-5, 3 frees), Emmet Kent, Noel Roche; Ciarán Redmond (0-2), Kevin Rowe (3-0), Conor Sinnott. Subs. - Seán Gaul (0-1) for G. Carty (11), Declan Murphy (0-1) for Roche (HT), Lee Devereusx for Redmond (48), Ronan Devereux for Vallejo (56).

CAPTAIN’S ARMBAND: Josh Murphy - a promising player with strong Enniscorthy links - was handed the captaincy of the Ireland Under-20 rugby side for their game to determine fifth to eighth positions in the World Cup, replacing scrum-half Nick McCarthy who missed out through injury.

RYAN REWARDED: The Mr Oil athlete of the month award went to Ryan Carthy-Walsh from Adamstown for achieving the qualification standard of 2.03m in the high jump for the European Youth Olympics on his way to winning the Leinster and All-Ireland Schools Intermediate championships.