Wexford 4-11 Tipperary 2-21
Tipperary gathered another two points in the junior hurling
championship with a well-earned victory over Wexford. Tipp had the run of things for most of the
game and at one point led by 14 points however two late Wexford goals provided
the Slaneysiders with a sliver of hope in injury time, but the Tipp back line
withstood Wexford’s late flurry and the 4 point lead stood.
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| Another win for the Tipperary junior hurlers. |
Tipperary enjoyed the better of things in the first
half. It was Peter O’Keefe the dangerman
at corner forward again, O’Keefe accounted for accounted for a goal and six
points of Tipp’s first half haul of 2-14, one point a beauty from way out on
the wing. Sean Moriarty was also
prominent in the Tipperary forward line with a couple of well taken points and
a goal where Wexford really should have done better with clearing the ball. Moriarty was on hand to drive the ball into
the back of the net from inside the 21 following a handful of fluffed attempts
to clear.
Wexford struggled against the Tipp defence, although Kevin
Joyce booted in a goal that was sandwiched by three points each side of
it. Paddy Whelan, Sean Deanly, and Jason
Foley each hit the mark. Wexford had a
couple of chances from 21 yard frees that could have kept them in touch, but
went low for the early goals, and the shots were easily dealt with. At the break it was a commanding 2-14 to 1-6 lead
for the Premier men.
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| A late Wexford surge fell just short on Sunday. |
Wexford made a better fist of things in the second half but
with Pat Moriarty sweeping up at center back and Mark Jordan and Darren
O’Donovan doing well on the wings, Wexford found it hard to make a
breakthrough. Tipp opened with three
points on the trot from O’Keefe to further inflate their lead before Wexford
answered with a Foley point and a second goal from Joyce. This time Joyce fetched a high ball, rounded
the keeper and tapped the ball into the net.
The use of the young American born hurler as a target man paid
dividends.
After Tipp strung another 3 points together Wexford caught a
break when Mark Jordan was shown a second yellow and had to leave the
field. Wexford needed goals and started
going for them. After a couple of
efforts John Dooley hit the back of the net.
With still 8 points in it Wexford still had a lot of work to do. An injury time goal from a bullet of a free
by Dominic Magill hit the roof of the net and reduced the deficit to 4 points
as Gary McGovern had pointed. Another
chance from directly in front of the goal was saved by Michael McGrath, and
that was the last chance for Wexford to try and save something from the game,
although Tipp really would have felt robbed. Wexford looking shaky to make a
semi-final place with just one win from their 4 games.
Wexford: E. Spruhan, D. Brennan, P. Bergin, J. Taggart, D.
Magill, JJ O’Neill, G. Lundy, J. Foley, P. Whelan, C. Kerins, S. Deanly, J.
Dooley, K. Joyce. Tipp: M. McGrath, S. SInnott, C. Madden, M. Jordan,
P. Moriarty, D. O’Donovan, S. Fortune, K. Kavanagh, S. Delaney, M. Moriarty, M.
Kavanagh, S. Moriarty, P. O’Keefe.
Saturday afternoon the Galway junior hurlers defeated Fr.
Tom Burke’s 4-23 to 3-10 and Worcester pipped Barley House Wolves by a single
point, 4-14 to 5-12.
By Rory O'Donnell
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