Late wexford denies meath victory
Jamie Carty's late goal snatched a 1-10 to 0-12 Leinster JFC final victory for Wexford against a battling Meath team at Wexford Park this evening as the Royals were pipped at the post after a valiant effort to win the provincial title.
Ciaran Lynch had Meath in front inside a minute after both sides had engaged in a bout of handpassing that ended with a goal chnace for Kevin Traynor that was blocked.
Lynch gained possession from the clearance and split the posts, a feat he repeated soon after when he converted a free after Ciaran Kelly was impeded off the ball.
Meath continued in the ascendancy with swift handpassing a hallmark of the attacks as Kelly, Danny Quinn and Lynch (free).
Then Meath's period of dominance ended and Wexford produced a scoring-burst as points from Conor Sinnott, Graham Carty and Niall Harney (free) got the hosts into the game.
Meath needed a response of some kind and that's what they got when Quinn split the posts to the delight of the large Ballinabrackey contingent who made the journey.
Sinnott replied for Wexford with a fine 20th minute, but that was their last score of the half as Meath upped the tempo despite losing Alan Douglas (replaced by Darragh McNamara) to what was an avoidable black card.
Late points from Kelly and Quinn completed Meath's first-half tally and gave them a 0-8 to 0-4 interval advantage, but they can thank Johnny O'Connor for a fine save that denied Sinnott a goal on the stroke of half-time.
Wexford resumed smartly with a brace of Sinnott points (one free), but McNamara sent over a fine point at the other end that had a settling effect on the Royals who then took a grip of the game with Kevin Ross(free) and Kelly on the mark for a 0-11 to 0-6 third-quarter lead.
Meath only managed one more points, a fisted Kelly effort as Wexford picked off the points, and a fair few wides, before that late goal sealed the verdict.
Wexford – A Masterson; P O'Keeffe, J Rossiter, R Vallejo; G Carty (0-1), J Breen, P Curtis; J Carty (1-1), J White; N Harney (0-1) , N Hughes, S Gaul; C Redmond, K Rowe, C Sinnott (0-6 three frees). Subs – D Shanley for Hughes 25 mins, G Malone for Gaul and D Murphy for Redmond both half-time, S Doyle for Harney 43m, L Devereux (0-1) for Curtis 50m.
Meath – Johnny O'Connor (Dunboyne); Michael Kearney (Ballinabrackey), Gavin McGowan (Ratoath), Chris O'Connor (Ballinabrackey); Kevin Traynor (Syddan), Sean Heavey (Ballivor), Aaron Newman (Dunderry); Alan Farrell (Nobber), Cian O'Brien (Ratoath); Alan Douglas (Trim), Bobby O'Brien (Ratoath), Danny Quinn (Ballinabrackey 0-3); Kevin Ross (Castletown 0-1), Ciaran Lynch (St Michael's 0-3 two frees), Ciaran Kelly (St Colmcille's 0-4).
Subs – Padraig Muldoon (Ballinlough) for for Kearney 38 mins, James Finnerty (Castletown) for Quinn 51m, Frankie Murphy (Trim) for Ross 54m, Stephen Crosby (Drumconrath) for O'Brien 54m, Neil Shortall (Curraha) for Farrell 59m.
Black card – A Douglas - replaced by Darragh McNamara (Drumbaragh) 0-1 24 mins.
Referee – Brendan Cawley (Kildare).