LEINSTER MINOR HURLING CHAMPIONSHIP SEMI-FINAL
WEXFORD 2-21 LAOIS 0-15
SPIRIT, while an important ingredient of any good team set up, is never enough when you come up against opponents who are more skilful than you. This was the lesson learned by Laois minor team when they lost out on a Leinster final place when beaten by Wex-ford in O’Moore Park on Wednesday evening.
In a game somewhat reminiscent of the first Lions test game against South Africa, Laois gave Wexford an insurmountable lead in the opening half and despite a spirited second half performance just could not pull back the deficit.
This made the final result all the more frustrating because it left the Laois players and management wondering just what might have been.
It was always going to be a tough battle for Laois. Wexford came into the game as last year’s beaten provincial finalists and with a compliment of players from their All-Ireland winning under-16 of last year.
While that in itself was daunting, Laois had to perform without Darren Holohan due to suspension. They were also hampered with the training ground injury picked up by Willie Campion, who despite starting had to leave the field after 20 minutes.
And things got worse when Paul Harding was red carded after just nine minutes. The midfielder was the victim of a late pull from Mark Maloney, who received a yellow card for his misdeed. Then, as play was resuming, Harding unwisely got involved with his Wexford counterpart resulting in referee David Hughes flashing the red card.
Whether or not Laois could have won is debatable. In fairness Wexford held the upper hand in most sectors.
They looked sharp and had all the skills to go with it. In stark contrast to Laois, no fewer than 10 Wexford lads got their name on the score sheet while only five could do so for the home side, with Neil Foyle responsible for nine of their fifteen scores.
The Borris-in-Ossory full forward, in his third year on the minor team, gave an exemplary display of free taking and can take some consolation in his performance.
Also of note were the points scored by Darren King. The lad from Rathdowney shot three superb points, one better than the next.
Unfortunately from a Laois perspective, there were not enough of these scores.
Things did not start well for Laois when Wexford won a penalty in the second minute after Dale Bergin was judged to have his arm around Páraic Farrell’s neck as the full forward tried to claim a high delivery. Wexford keeper Mark Fanning raced up field to take the free and no doubt had a goal on his mind but he blasted over for a point.
Farrell was causing havoc on the edge of the square and added a second for his side after claiming another high delivery.
King replied with an excellent point from out wide but this was a very brief respite.
Wexford were to tack on three points before Ian Byrne raised the green flag for the first time in the eighth. Maloney sent a long ball into the danger area and unfortunately Barry Wall fumbled and Byrne was onto it in a flash. The winger added another point before Wexford struck for their second goal.
In between Harding was sent to the sideline while T.J. Lalor scored Laois’ second point.
Another long ball led to goal number two in the 12th minute.
As the sliotar sailed over the heads of defenders and forwards, Wall was forced into a race to clear the danger but only managed to knock the ball to Farrell who blasted to the net.
A further two points followed before Gearoid Burke claimed Laois’ third point and things were looking very bad for the O’Moore lads entering the second quarter.
Only now did Laois begin to match Wexford who scored a further five points before the break. Laois found the target on four occasions thanks to Foyle, his fourth a superb effort to leave the score at halftime 2-13 to 0-7.
Over the third quarter Laois hurled exceptionally well, outscoring Wexford by seven points to three. Willie Dunphy was first on target followed by a Foyle free.
King next slotted over a beauty followed by three frees from Foyle before King shot his third. In between all these Wexford shot three, two frees from captain Brendan Barron and Diarmuid O’Keeffe from play. Entering the final quarter the gap was down to eight points and Laois’ supporters were hoping they were about to see an amazing conclusion. Unfortunately the exertion of the previous three-quarters of an hour took its toll on the Laois lads.
Wexford gathered themselves and added on five points in almost as many minutes and with the game slowing dragging to a conclusion the final score fell appropriately to a Neil Foyle free.
The final whistle was a bitter moment for the Laois lads but as manager Tony Ryan said: “Kilkenny will have some game on their hands to beat Wexford and if Wexford win it will be some consolation to our lads and we wish them the best of luck.”
WEXFORD: Mark Fanning . Willie Devereux, Matthew O’Hanlon, Alan Nolan; Conor Goff, James Gordon, Brendan Barron . (.f . ’..); Brian Doyle .-., Mark Maloney .-.; Diarmuid O’Keeffe .-., Craig Doyle, Ian Byrne . (.-.f); Liam "g McGovern .-., Páraic Farrell .-., Barry Carton
.-.. Subs: Cathal Clince .-. for Goff (..mins), Aaron Kenny for Nolan (..mins), Lee Devereux for Doyle (..mins), Jack Hobbs for McGovern (..mins), Aiden Rochford for Maloney (..mins).
LAOIS: Barry Wall (Borris-in-Ossory); Dale Bergin (Shanahoe), Pakie Flynn (Harps), Conor Hyland (Clonaslee/St Manman’s); Gearoid Gaughan (Castletown), Willie Campion (Kilcotton), Johnny Finnane (Clough/ Ballacolla); Andrew Dowling (Rathdowney/Errill), Paul Harding (Castletown); Gearoid Burke (Camross) .-., Tony Ryan (Colt), Darren King (Rathdowney/Errill) .-.; Willie Dunphy (Clough/ Ballacolla) .-., Neil Foyle (Borrisin-Ossory) .-. (.f), T.J. Lalor (Ballinakill) .-.. Subs: Darren Gilmartin (Kyle) for Campion (..mims), David Freeman (Harps) for Dowling (..mins), Simon Smith (Rosenallis) for Gaughan (..mins), Robbie Foyle (Timahoe) for Lalor (..mins), Loughlin Hegarty (Castletown) for Hyland (..mins).
REFEREE: David Hughes (Carlow)