Galway 0-15 Wexford 1-7: Padraic Joyce tore Wexford apart as his 10-point tally helped Galway make sure of the points at Wexford Park yesterday.
Referee Michael Collins yellow carded both Wexford midfielders, Diarmuid Kinsella and Nicky Lambert during the opening half, and they were joined by Matty Forde and Paddy Colfer in the second 35 minutes.
Galway had four players yellow carded. First Derek Savage and Paul Clancy, and, when Damien Burke and Michael Comer were sent to the line in the closing five minutes, the visitors were forced to play with 13 men, having used their six substitutes.
"I understand the referee was applying the rules but some of the decisions were silly. It was not a dirty game of football, there were some hard knocks but the rules are debatable," said Galway manager Peter Ford.
But Wexford manager Pat Roe was clearly angry with the decisions. "I approached the referee at half-time and asked why he yellow carded Diarmuid Kinsella, and he simply walked by, not answering. I was unhappy with the referee's performance, but really we did not function on the day. Padraic Joyce took us apart."
Wexford went in leading by 1-4 to 0-6 at the break. Forde was doing the main damage contributing 0-4, but his 14th-minute penalty, which was pointed, turned out to be a crucial miss. John Hudson had scored the game's only goal in the 11th minute .
It was four Joyce points along with two from Paul Clancy which kept Galway in the game up to the interval.Then, with Joyce picking off points, Galway led 0-10 to 1-5 after 57 minutes and when Forde was yellow carded on 52 minutes Wexford lost their main scoring threat.
GALWAY: B Donoghue; A Burke, K Fitzgerald, V Feeney; D Meehan, D Burke, M Comer; N Coleman, J Bergin (0-1); D Savage, P Clancy (0-3), J Devane; M Meehan, P Joyce (0-10, 5 frees), S Armstrong. Subs: C Monaghan for Feeney (injured, 20 mins), K Comer (0-1) for Devane (injured, 35 mins), N Meehan for Clancy, (yellow card, 45 mins), M Clancy for Savage (yellow card, 55 mins), S Walsh for Armstrong (60 mins); M Colleran for Coleman (injured, 64 mins).
WEXFORD: J Cooper; C Morris, P Wallace, N Murphy; G Sunderland, D Murphy, S Cullen; D Kinsella, N Lambert; R Barry (0-2, frees), P Colfer, J Hegarty; C Deely, J Hudson (1-0), M Forde (0-5, one free, one pen). Subs: B Doyle for Kinsella (yellow card, 27 mins), J Lawlor for Deely (32 mins), PJ Banville for Lambert (yellow card, 35 mins), K Kennedy for M Forde (yellow card, 52 mins); D Browne for Hudson (64 mins).
YELLOW CARDS: Galway: P Clancy (45 mins), D Savage (55 mins), M Comer (67 mins), D Burke (70 mins). Wexford: D Kinsella (27 mins), N Lambert (35 mins), M Forde (52 mins), P Colfer (70 mins).
Referee: M Collins (Cork).