Wexford 2-13 Down 0-12: Wexford exorcised their demons following a second half mauling by Dublin in last month's Leinster SFC final as they eased passed a rudderless Down side to book their place in the quarter-final of the championship at Croke Park this afternoon.
Although Jason Ryan's men ran out convincing winners, today's performance will hardly fill their next opponents with trepidation. This was not a game for the purists on a day when Down failed to turn up.
Ross Carr's men were supposed to bully the midfield with Dan Gordon orchestrating in the middle of the park. Instead the passages of play were error strewn and the supply line to the mercurial Benny Coulter was cut-off from the outset as Wexford adopted a successful sweeper system to ensure the Mayobridge man was largely anonymous - he only scored two points all afternoon.
Despite Down starting the brighter of the two sides to go 0-03 to 0-02 ahead the writing was quickly on the wall as Ciaran Lyng scored Wexford's opening goal after 15 minutes. Brendan Doyle burst through the Down defence before his shot rattled into Matty Forde. But the Wexford forward cleverly handed onto Lyng who picked off his shot with great skill to go 1-02 to 0-3 ahead.
Huge gaps in the porous Down defence emerged all afternoon and the Wexford onslaught was inevitable - so too were the Down's mistakes.
Wexford's second goal after 24 minutes typified Down's defensive frailties as Forde fired in a high, hopeful free into Brendan McVeigh's goal area. The Down keeper failed to collect and PJ Banville was quickest to react in a busy house as he fisted home to increase Wexford's advantage (2-03 to 0-05.)
Aidan Carr (0-06 in total) kept Down's slim hope alive with a number of well-take frees but they still trailed 2-05 to 0-7 at the break.
Carr recognised the need for change and fresh ideas as he brought on Damien Rafferty, Ronan Sexton and Declan Rooney for the second half. The desired impetus didn't materialise and the danger signs soon emerged when Lyng should have scored his second of the goal of the game.
Three minutes after the restart Lynn was clear through on goal once more. After doing everything right and taking it round McVeigh in the Down goal, Lyng slipped just as he was about to pull the trigger and Down were spared.
In the final quarter Forde put on a master class to effectively end the contest. Just as the sun broke through after torrential downpours at headquarters, Forde, with a personal tally of 0-07, found his range and picked off points with ease. With 10 minutes to play he had scored four points without reply in quick succession to give Wexford a 2-11 to 0-10 lead.
From there Down were never going to come back. Despite Wexford shooting 13 wides in all, they always had the measure of the Mourne men.
Earlier in the day Antrim were comfortable 3-13 to 1-15 winners over Wicklow as they went one better than last year to win the Tommy Murphy Cup final at headquarters.
Antrim were stunned by a Wicklow goal in the first minute when Seanie Furlong found the net.
However, last year's beaten finalists stuck to the task and fired three first half goals through Thomas McCann, Kevin Brady and Ciaran Close in reply to Wicklow's opening goal to ensure a 3-06 to 1-09 lead at the break.
Antrim's potency in the final quarter was telling in the end.
Scorers:
Wexford
(2-5) 2-13
Goals: Lyng, Banville
Points: Forde 7, Banville, Barry, Lyng, Coffer, Byrne, Stafford
Down (0-7) 0-12
Points: Carr 6, Rodgers 2, Coulter 2, Rooney, Kearney