NHL, Division 1A: Wexford 1-20 Galway 2-19
The impact of the Galway bench played a crucial role in their eventual two point victory over Wexford at Chadwicks Wexford Park.
Manager Michael Donogue hailed his side and was glowing in his praise for the contribution of his subs and the eventual impact they had on the end result.
As the Galway forward line were struggling to impact the game, the experienced Conor Cooney was introduced from the bench on 47 minutes, having an immediate presence in contributing 1-2 from frees while also winning so much primary possession.
The Galway bench’s impact was evident from the opening minute of the second half when Kevin Cooney, introduced during the break, shot the first point of the second period, while Colm Molloy and Sean Linnane also got in on the scoring with a point apiece.
Reflecting on Galway’s effort off the bench, contributing 1-6 during the second period, Donoghue said: “You have to give a lot of credit and respect to Wexford. They were never going to die. Late on Lee Chin got some scores from frees which brought them back into the game, got the crowd behind them, leaving us to defend the closing minutes.
“But I thought our lads showed a much better performance in the second half and were really resilient, and importantly who got a big impact from the bench too.”
Donoghue added: “We had to introduce David Burke and Declan McLoughlin before the game. The bench was catalyst to this result which was pleasing for it gives us strength in depth.”
Wexford are now facing relegating have just two points from five games played, with a final round game against Limerick to come.
Wexford manager Keith Rossiter admitted relegation looks to lay ahead. “Am I talking about relegation now? I am probably now, yeah. I wasn’t up to tonight because I thought it was still in our own hands and I thought we could have won tonight.
“But as I said, we beat ourselves with the wides we had. We hit 14 of the game’s 19 wides. I’ll have to look at relegation now and see what the lay of the land is. But when you are depending on other results it’s never a good way to be.”
Galway maintained their momentum with their third successive victory, keeping them very much in the title race. Given the nature of this latest victory, they must have been happy with their continued progress as they set sights on bigger days ahead, despite having to withstand a late Wexford onslaught that saw a 75th-minute Mark Fanning 21-metre free saved by a packed goalmouth.
As a game, it was quite a disappointing contest as both sides struggled to bring any composure to their play, but it was Galway who looked more comfortable in the second half, pushing themselves into a seven-point lead, 2-19 to 1-15, with six minutes remaining.
While Wexford did manage to produce a late rally, courtesy of Lee Chin’s pointed frees, they were unable to create that goal they so desperately needed.
Galway raced into an early three-point lead through a Michael Garvey long free and points from David Burke and Ciaran Fahy, with Wexford having to wait until the eighth minute for their opening score, a Seamus Casey free.
Instead of Galway pushing ahead it was Wexford who responded with points from Casey (free and two 65s) and Jack O’Connor to lead 0-5 to 0-3 after 19 minutes.
After a lacklustre opening both sides began to rouse themselves. With Casey sending over fine frees and Galway responding with points from Darren Morrissey and three Garvey frees, Wexford led 0-10 to 0-9 approaching the break.
Disaster struck the home side three minutes into additional time before half-time when the defence failed to deal with a long Garvey free, leaving corner forward Anthony Burns to find the net from close range, leaving the Tribesmen 1-9 to 0-10 ahead at the interval.
Half-time substitute Kevin Cooney made his presence felt within one minute of the restart with a fine point, but within minutes Wexford were back level, 1-10 each, when Rory O’Connor intercepted a short puck-out to find the net.
Galway then hit a purple patch as they gradually took control, Conor and Kevin Cooney each hitting points, before a crucial breakthrough on 55 minutes when a foul on the latter gave the former a chance to blast the resulting penalty to the net, putting Galway 2-16 to 1-13 to the good.
While the visiting subs made a notable second-half difference, it was Lee Chin who took the reins for Wexford stepping into the free-taking role following Casey’s substitution. Chin pointed four long frees to reduce the deficit to two points, but it was Galway who held firm in the closing minutes to continue their winning streak, while Wexford look set to be consigned to Division 1B for next season.
WEXFORD: M Fanning; E Ryan, S Donohoe, C Foley (0-1); R Lawlor (0-1), D Reck, C McGuckin; C Hearne (0-1), C Dunbar (0-1); J O’Connor (0-1), L Chin (0-5f), J Redmond; K Foley, S Casey (0-7; 0-5f, 0-2 65), R O’Connor (1-2).
Subs: S Reck (0-1) for D Reck (35 mins); S Roche for Redmond, N Murphy for Ryan (both h-t), T Kinsella for Casey (60), M Dwyer for Dunbar (66).
GALWAY: D Fahy; J Grealish, F Burke, D Morrissey (0-1); P Mannion, G Lee, M Garvey (0-5; 0-3f); C Fahy (0-1), T Monaghan (0-1); D Burke (0-2), T Killeen (0-2f), B Concannon; D McLoughlin, C Whelan, A Burns (1-1).
Subs: K Cooney (0-2) for McLoughlin (h-t), C Cooney (1-2; 0-2f, 1-0 pen) for Concannon (47 mins), C Molloy (0-1) for Burns (50), C Molloy for Burns (59), S Linnane (0-1) for D Burke (60).
Referee: S Stack (Dublin).
