Wexford 1-11 Galway 0-13 JASON RYAN'S Wexford side produced one of the shocks of the summer at Pearse Stadium on Saturday. It was not the way Joe Kernan's first season in charge was expected to end, but Galway could have few complaints after being caught at the death for the second week running.
Kernan will sit down with Galway football board officials in the coming weeks to see if he will continue in the job.
“Our championship is over and we certainly expected at the start of the year to go a lot further, but it is not to be. That is two disappointing weeks in a row,” said the former Armagh manager. “I thought this week the hurt from last week would drive us on, but today we didn’t take the chance. We had plenty of chances; we owned the ball for long periods.
“But you have got to give credit to Wexford. When we had the pressure on them they didn’t wilt and they kept coming back at us. One point wins matches and that is the way it ended,” said Kernan.
It was the second week in a row Galway conceded an equaliser in stoppage time and then a match-winning score as Wexford came with a storming finish. Two years ago they made the All-Ireland semi-final and they had an abundance of battling qualities against a Galway side still reeling from the loss to Sligo a week earlier.
“We gave Galway a few headstarts but managed to stay close enough to them to make the most of the few breaks that came our way in the end,” said Ryan.
“Our finishing got better at the end and we made the most of the chances we got at that stage. But we didn’t feel we played very well and there is plenty of room for improvement.”
The turning point came after 52 minutes when Darren Mullahy was adjudged to have fouled Redmond Barry – one of several decisions which angered Galway – and Ciarán Lyng dispatched the penalty superbly to put Wexford ahead for the first time.
Cormac Bane, an unused substitute in both games against Sligo, hit 0-4 after being introduced on Saturday. He levelled matters at 1-8 to 0-11 and then when the superb Pádraic Joyce and wing-back Gary O’Donnell pointed, it seemed Galway were poised for victory.
But Galway, who had a blistering start when Joyce kicked four points without reply only to be pegged back to 0-6 to 0-5 by the interval, did not score in the closing eight minutes. Four minutes from time man-of-the-match Lyng reduced the deficit to the minimum and in the second of five additional minutes wing-back Adrian Flynn went forward to land an excellent equaliser, much to the Wexford fans’ delight in the surprisingly small crowd of just 2,330.
Wexford were not finished and appropriately it was Lyng, who finished with 1-6, who landed a superb winning point three and a half minutes into stoppage time.
There was no way back for a stunned Galway side who have now won just one qualifier game – against Louth in 2004 – since becoming the first senior side to come through the backdoor and win the All-Ireland title in 2001.
Wexford will hope to repeat their 2008 qualifier run but in Galway a painful inquest will be carried out after winning just one championship game – against New York – in four outings.
WEXFORD:A Masterson; J Wadding, G Molloy, B Malone; A Flynn (0-1), D Murphy, A Doyle; E Bradley (0-1), D Waters; C Morris (0-1), M Forde (0-1, free), R Barry (0-1, 45); C Lyng (1-6, 1-0 pen, two frees), PJ Banville, S Roche. Subs:B Brosnan for Roche (52 mins); B Doyle for Watters (67 mins); P Naughter for Morris (70 mins).
GALWAY:A Faherty; D Reilly, F Hanley, A Burke; G Bradshaw, K Fitzgerald, G O'Donnell (0-1); J Bergin, N Coleman; G Sice, F Breathnach, M Clancy (0-1); E Concannon, P Joyce (0-6, two frees), S Armstrong (0-1). Subs:C Bane (0-4) for Concannon (20 mins); D Mullahy for Reilly (24 mins); P Conroy for Clancy (58 mins).
Referee:J White (Donegal).
