CATS SHOW CLAWS TO WOUND WEXFORD
NO CHEER FOR HOME FANS AS CATS EASE WAY IN TO DECIDER
TIME to start preordering those tickets for the Leinster Championship meeting between this pair on June 9 at Nowlan Park, a final round game that looks set to put some shape on the summer.
This was just a taster and it managed to attract 16,452 paying customers to Innovate Wexford Park and force a delay to the throw-in of 15 minutes.
By the end, the buoyant home supporters, who came in their droves, left deflated. It was like travelling in a time machine, back to the pre-Davy Fitzgerald era when Kilkenny routinely trampled on their dreams.
After dethroning League and All-Ireland champions Galway last weekend, Wexford were comprehensively outplayed. From the point where Aidan Nolan stuck a penalty in the top corner for the perfect start that had Wexford 1-2 to 0-1 in front, it was clear that Kilkenny didn’t just come to Wexford town to compete, they came to take over.
When Fitzgerald pores over the video, he will be checking to see how exactly his team conceded 1-11 without reply. How his team failed to register a score from play in the entire half, going 25 minutes without any score. How it was that, but for goalkeeper Mark Fanning pulling off a couple of saves from John Donnelly and Ger Aylward — a TJ Reid shot was also blocked and the same player was hauled down by Matthew O’Hanlon when in on goal — the match would have been over as a contest. How Wexford only had five Rory O’Connor frees to go with the Aidan Nolan penalty and trailed by eight at half-time.
Even when the home side put up fierce resistance in the 10 minutes after half-time to reel Kilkenny in to just three points, Kilkenny again took complete control to win pulling up.
Just another day’s work for TJ Reid who finished with a breathtaking 15 points, his free-taking into the breeze in the second half a thing of wonder.
Richie Leahy clipped a couple of effortless points from midfield while Martin Donnelly and Walter Walsh took apart Wexford down the wings where Diarmuid O’Keeffe and Paudie Foley endured a very different afternoon to last Saturday when they had the freedom of the park.
And so, after a spring when Kilkenny lost their opening two games to Cork and Clare and were being touted widely as relegation candidates, here they are, back in a League final. Against Tipperary.
Two of the game’s bluebloods slugging it out again at Nowlan Park next Sunday when received wisdom suggested the Championship was wide open. And maybe it is. But this was a reality check for Wexford.
One man who never lost faith in his team, despite some suggestions that it was time for a change at the top, was Brian Cody.
Even after those first two rounds.
‘I’d never presume anything,’ he said. ‘We lost the first two games by three points. Potentially we could have won one or both of those two games.
‘I’m not saying we should have but we were in a position where we might have. Three points is not a big losing deficit by any means.
‘Obviously we were tipped very strongly to be playing a relegation battle. But our ambition wasn’t to do that of course. Our ambition was to try and go on and win the next game and the next game. Great tribute to the players.
‘The reaction has been terrific. And now we are in the League final.’
As for the idea that it will count for something come the summer meeting, he wasn’t buying it.
‘It will have no bearing on the Leinster Championship meeting whatsoever.
‘If it counts for anything, it is going to make them so determined. That’s usually what happens when you’re beaten by a team — it’s very easy to get a reaction.
‘It won’t change our perspective. We’re expecting a phenomenal game.’
Rory O’Connor provided one of the bright lights for Wexford, carrying the fight in the second half and it was the same player who was fouled by Paddy Deegan for the early penalty which Aidan Nolan converted.
Kilkenny though were hungrier to the breaks and, backed by the breeze, stunned the home crowd with that 1-11 without reply, Walter Walsh squeezing the ball to the net from a tight angle under pressure.
When Conor McDonald showed real strength to catch a Matthew O’Hanlon delivery and shrug off the challenge of Padraig Walsh to hit the net early in the second half, the comeback looked on.
Except Kilkenny just continued their dominance of the first half,
Delaney, Cillian Buckley and Enda Morrissey rock solid in the half-back and the new wave of Martin Keoghan, John Donnelly and Bill Sheehan impressing up front by taking on and turning their markers at every opportunity.
Time and again Wexford committed the foul and Reid stepped up to punish them.
The return to action of goalkeeper Eoin Murphy and midfielder Conor Fogarty are two more reasons for Cody to be happy.
Tipperary have been well warned. KILKENNY: E Murphy; J Holden, P Walsh, P Deegan; C Delaney, C Buckley, E Morrissey; R Leahy (L Ryan 68), J Maher (C Fogarty 48); M Keoghan (P Lyng 71), TJ Reid, J Donnelly (L Blanchfield 60); G Aylward, W Walsh, B Sheehan (L Scanlon 69). Scorers: TJ Reid 0-15 (12fs), W Walsh 1-1, J Donnelly, G Aylward, R Leahy 0-2 each, B Sheehan, M Keoghan, E Morrissey, C Buckley, E Murphy (f) 0-1 each Yellow card: E Morrissey 35, L Blanchfield 61 Wides: 6 (4) WEXFORD: M Fanning; W Devereux (D Reck 15), L Ryan, S Donohoe; S Murphy; P Foley, M O’Hanlon, D O’Keeffe; K Foley, A Nolan (D Dunne 53); J O’Connor (C Dunbar 69), R O’Connor, L Chin; C McDonald, P Morris (H Kehoe 50). Scorers: R O’Connor 0-12 (8fs), C McDonald 1-1, A Nolan 1-0 (pen), H Ke-hoe, S Murphy 0-1 each Yellow card: M O’Hanlon 18, S Donohoe 55, L Ryan 61, L Chin 64 Wides: 6 (5) Referee: C Lyons (Cork)