Doyle's late score helps Carlow to victory in Tullow
Paddy Doyle scored a crucial late point on his club's pitch as Carlow beat Wexford in the O'Byrne Shield quarter-final Photo: Pat Ahern
Carlow footballing feet remained firmly on the ground after their O’Byrne Cup Shield win over Wexford in Tullow on Wednesday. There had been an element of frustration when they conceded two late O’Byrne Cup goals only four days earlier to end up in the secondary competition.
But here when they trailed by four points early on, their resolve was tested. If there were any doubts in their minds, they banished them and with an excellent 45 minute performance they were delighted to advance to the next round where they will play Laois in Rathvilly on Saturday.
“It is difficult to get the win but I don’t think we will be getting too ahead of ourselves. It is only an O’Byrne Cup game,” said Carlow corner-forward, Conor Crowley.
Wexford made all the early running with full-forward, Mark Rossiter, slotting over a point. Crowley equalised but the Model footballers were irresistible with points from Pairic Hughes, Sean Nolan (2) and Shane Doyle asking the early questions of the home side.
The introduction of Shane Clarke into the action for Carlow injected pace into the attack while Sean Murphy’s straight running helped the home side back into the game. Clarke raised a white flag and while Nolan continued to be a threat for Wexford, Carlow were now playing with more confidence.
Clarke added another point and Ross Dunphy also found the posts to leave Wexford leading 0-7 to 0-5 at the break.
The second half was only a minute old when a Carlow attack put Colm Hulton clear. The Éire Óg man is playing with great confidence early in the season and he duly found the net to give Carlow the lead.
“We did mention that we didn’t want any moral victories. This squad is tired of moral victories so it was very important to build on the performance against Offaly, get the win but we were disappointed with that first half performance,” acknowledged Crowley who tacked on an early second half point. Hulton added another and Conor Doyle also found the posts. From a position of uncertainty Carlow were now three points clear with a quarter of the contest to go.
If the forwards were finding scores then the home defence also played their part as they cut out space for Wexford to work in. Yes, there were some dodgy moments with some ball turned over but Carlow worked hard to mend the damage.
“Our aggression and our intensity in the second half is what got us over the line.
We need to tidy up our some of our skills but, overall, we will be happy with that,” agreed Crowley.
When Wexford centre-back, Eoghan Nolan, came forward to land a late point the Carlow lead which had been three was down to one. It was here Joe Murphy, the Carlow manager, showed he was willing to use his squad.
The introduction of Patrick Doyle from the local club brought a huge cheer of approval from the local Tullow supporters. He paid back that confidence in spades when getting on the ball on at least three occasion and then popped it over the bar for a well-worked point. Crowley acknowledged as much.
“We definitely referenced the Offaly game last week. We didn’t want to have all our good work go to waste and I think we built on it towards the end. There was a bit of maturity from the group. We didn’t force it. We worked the ball really well for 2-3 minutes and finished with a great score from Paddy,” he said.
Paddy McDonnell’s late punched point meant Carlow were not going to lose. They did better when denying Wexford an opportunity to equalise. As Crowley acknowledged his side were happy to win but were not looking too far ahead just yet.
“Still a lot to improve on but definitely we are taking a step in the right direction,” noted the Palatine man.
Scorers:
C Hulton 1-3 (1f), S Clarke 0-2, C Crowley 0-2 (1f), T Roche, C Doyle (f), S Murphy, R Dunphy, P McDonnell, P Doyle 0-1 each.
S Nolan 0-6 (1-2p), C Kehoe 0-2, E Nolan, S Doyle, J Lawless, M Rossiter, P Hughes 0-1 each.
Harry Clarke; Lee Moore, Dara Curran, Colin Byrne; Tadhg Roche, Mark Furey, Padhraig Bolger; Adam Burgess, Conor Doyle; Mikey Bambrick, Colm Hulton, Paddy McDonnell; Sean Murphy, Ross Dunphy, Conor Crowley. Subs: Shane Clarke for Bambrick (17), Kevin Murphy for Crowley (47), Evan Corr for Murphy (51), Patrick Doyle for Bolger (57), Paddy Regan for Moore (57), Jamie Clarke for Dunphy.
Paul Burns; Liam O’Connor, Eoin Porter, Ciaran Hourihane; Darragh Lyons, Eoghan Nolan, Shane Doyle; Cathal Kehoe, Colum Feeney; Jack Higgins, Pairic Hughes, Shane Kehoe; James Lawless, Mark Rossiter, Sean Nolan. Subs: Shane Carroll for Burns, Quin Kelly for O’Connor, Dylan Furlong for Lyons, Dylan O’Brien for Kehoe, Donal Shanley for Higgins (all half-time), Gavin Sheehan for Hourihane, Sean Barden for Doyle, Conor Blake for Feeney, Jason Sheridan for Lawless (all 45).
S Fagan (Wicklow).
