Carlow qualify for knockout stages
Carlow minor captain Mark Buggy scores a vital two pointer in the second half Photo: Pat Ahern
Carlow advanced to the Leinster minor football championship preliminary quarter-finals when they edged Wexford in this Group 3 second round tie at St Patrick’s Park, Enniscorthy on Wednesday.
They had to dig deep when finding themselves four points in arrears on nine minutes after Ryan Wycherley tipped the ball to the Carlow net past the advancing Ryan Gordon.
Five minutes later, that concession was cancelled out when a long ball into the edge of the small square wasn’t dealt with by the home defence and Alan Fitzgerald was on hand to collect. He had it all to do but he went right, made space for himself and found the bottom left hand corner of the net.
Wexford enjoyed a good spell when they scored four points without reply, through Conor Shortall (2fs), Wycherley and Alex Devereaux to lead 1-7 to 1-5 at the interval.
Two minutes after the resumption, Zack Hernan added another Wexford point and now Carlow had to find another gear. They got a huge boost when an Edward O’Byrne 45 was deflected to the home net by Mark Buggy. He followed this up with a two-pointer from play and now Carlow had their rivals in their sights.
With the game going into injury time the visitors led by three points. In a tense finish, a tremendous block by a Carlow defender and another by keeper, Gordon, denied the home team who needed a goal which they were denied.
M Buggy 1-6 (1-2p 2fs), A Fitzgerald 1-1, L Byrne 0-3.
R Wycherley 1-3, C Shortall 0-7 (1-2p 5fs), A Devereaux, Z Hernan 0-1 each.
Ryan Gordon; Alex Donnelly Finn, Conor Stanley, Luke O’Brien; Ronan Dooley, Leon Fitzgerald, Darragh Casey; Ben Curry, Mikey Byrne; John Hendricken, Jacob Curran, Fiach Byrne; Mark Buggy, Luke Byrne, Alan Fitzgerald. Subs: Alex Doyle for Fitzgerald (50), Freddie Gibson for L Byrne (50).
Max Monahan; Cathal Ennis, Eoin Tomkins, Dylan Barrett; Michael Kehoe, Ruadhán O’Dwyer, Ryan Wycherley; Conor Shortall, Nathan Doyle; Scott Sinnott, Zach Hernan, Jack Swan; Kerim Fullam, Seán Óg Murphy, Alex Devereaux. Subs: Max Beary for Sinnott (39), Sam Kirwan for Murphy (58), Donncha O’Hanlon for Doyle (59).
Stephen Fagan (Wicklow)
