Wexford tip balance with a late surge
EVENTUALLY, after all the frees and the cards and the stoppages at Croke Park, a hurling game broke out and Wexford dug deepest to prevail.
That’s a neat summary of this Allianz Hurling League tie which simmered for around an hour before coming to the boil and delivering the drama we craved.
Dublin, leading by three points with eight minutes of normal time remaining, looked like they might edge a free-taking battle.
But Wexford, true to the fighting instincts of their manager Davy Fitzgerald, came good when it truly counted to seal victory and, perhaps, a place in the League quarter-finals.
The most important statistic is that Wexford outscored Dublin by 1-5 to 0-2 late on to secure the win, Jack O’Connor’s 72nd-minute goal the crucial score while his brother Rory scored four second-half points and was named Man of the Match.
There were also three red cards, two for Wexford who lost sub Conor McDonald in the 54th minute for a strike across Paddy Smyth and Shaun Murphy following his second yellow card in the 67th minute.
Late on, Eoghan O’Donnell also walked for Dublin for his second caution, with a total of 13 yellows and three reds dished out.
It wasn’t hurling for the purist though and the few thousand in the lower decks of the Hogan and Cusack Stands didn’t have much to get excited about for long spells.
Dublin hit the interval with a 0-10 to 1-5 lead but of those 16 scores registered by the two teams, nine of them came from placed balls.
Six of Dublin’s points in that period were converted frees.
Oisin O’Rorke, Ronan Hayes and Paul Ryan all took turns on the frees for Dublin with Ryan drilling over four in the first-half.
Wexford managed just two points in the first 25 minutes and just one from play, a Paul Morris effort.
Their 31st-minute goal came from a penalty when goalkeeper Mark Fanning strode forward and planted a meaty effort in the Dublin net.
That effort put the Slaneysiders into the lead for the first time at 1-4 to 0-6.
Morris added a point to nudge Wexford two clear but Dublin’s response was impressive as they closed out the half with four points in a row, including two from the impressive Rian McBride, to lead 0-10 to 1-5.
It continued in that vein initially, with the first three points of the second-half all coming from frees.
Ryan took his tally to 0-8 for Dublin with yet another dispatched free in the 59th minute and Eamon Dillon hit a cracker from play to leave the hosts three clear, 0-16 to 1-10.
Things went downhill from there though for Mattie Kenny’s men who, despite having the extra numbers personnel wise, were overwhelmed in the closing minutes as Wexford conjured a glut of scores and that crucial solo goal from Jack O’Connor to wrestle victory their way.
WEXFORD: M Fanning; Joe O’Connor, L Ryan, C Firman; D Reck, M O’Hanlon (P Foley h/t), S Murphy; A Rochford (L Og McGovern h/t), D O’Keeffe; K Foley (P Foley 31-h/t, blood), L Chin (Jack O’Connor 47), R O’Connor; P Morris, M Dwyer (C McDonald 48), A Nolan (C Dunbar 69).
SCORERS: P Morris 0-7 (0-3f, 0-1 65), R O’Connor 0-4 (0-1f), J O’Connor, M Fanning (pen) 1-0, L Chin (0-1f), D O’Keeffe, P Foley 0-1.
DUBLIN: S Brennan; C O’Callaghan (A Dunphy 58), Eoghan O’Donnell, P Smyth; J Madden (T Connolly 62), D Gray, J Malone; R McBride, S Moran; D Sutcliffe (C Boland 43), C Crummey, D Burke; D Keogh (E Dillon 53), R Hayes, O O’Rorke (P Ryan 14).
SCORERS: P Ryan 0-8 (0-8f), R McBride, R Hayes (0-1f) 0-2, O O’Rorke (0-1f), C Crummey, D Burke, J Madden, E Dillon, C Boland 0-1.
REFEREE: J Murphy (Limerick).