Abrupt ending angers hosts as Wexford share spoils with Laois in Leinster Under-20 hurling championship

Wexford 0-18 Laois 0-18

Referee Mark Ryan made himself an unnecessary centre of attention with the timing of his final whistle in Saturday’s drawn encounter with Laois in Tier 1 of the oneills.com Leinster Under-20 hurling championship in Chadwicks Wexford Park.

The sides were deadlocked for the ninth time on 0-18 each when impressive defender Eoin Whelan – who has happily returned from injury – stood over a free on the left flank and arrowed it down the wing.

It was caught by Simon Roche, who turned on to his left side and was roughly 30 metres from the Clonard end posts and presumably preparing to shoot when the man in black brought proceedings to a halt.

I pressed my stopwatch at that precise moment and the time read 32 minutes 54 seconds, with a chorus of boos ringing out from the Wexford crowd after the Oulart-The Ballagh attacker was denied the chance to have a go for the winner.

The referee didn’t hang around on the field afterwards, but at least one home mentor got close enough to let him know what he thought of the decision.

It was certainly a strange one, but there’s no point in any ill-feeling lingering because of the circumstances.

This was a game to determine second and third finishing places in the three-team group, after both sides lost heavily to Kilkenny.

Wexford had a superior scoring difference of three points to Laois, so a win rather than a draw wouldn’t have deviated from their runners-up spot.

And the upshot is that they look like being on a collision course with Dublin in a quarter-final on Wednesday, May 8, unless either Westmeath or Carlow can first spring a surprise.

In one sense, that opportunity denied to Roche at the finish is a good thing, because a one-point Wexford win would have papered over a lot of cracks.

It was the second less than convincing performance from a much-changed side, with five alterations in personnel from the team that shipped that heavy beating away to Kilkenny.

For any outsider looking in and merely attending the competitive games, it can be said with certainty that they won’t have a clue what the starting team might be for that knockout game next month.

Opinions will differ widely in that regard, both in terms of positioning and personnel, but there’s no more room for experimenting and it’s clear that the improvement needed after the Kilkenny loss hasn’t fully materialised yet.

One young man who did step up and take his opportunity was Eamon Wickham. Introduced at half-time in UPMC Nowlan Park, he lined out from the off last Saturday at left half-forward and slotted over four fine first-half points.

Indeed, he was the only one of the 34 players in action to register more than once from open play – quite a remarkable statistic for a hurling game, but one largely explained by the preponderance of frees in scorable positions.

Laois registered 16 of their 18 points from placed balls, with Ben Deegan accounting for 14 – including one ’65 – while goalkeeper Brochan O’Reilly landed two monster wind-aided efforts from inside his own ’45 in the second-half.

And while Wexford may be justified in thinking that some of the calls against them were harsh, by the same token their tackling was poor at times and that’s an area they can definitely target.

The hosts weren’t feared by these Laois players – many of whom were on the winning side when the counties met at Minor level in Portlaoise two years ago – and on the overall run of play they deserved to take something from the game.

Wexford’s best sustained spell arrived in the early stages when, backed by the strong wind after Cian Ó Tuama won the toss, they surged into an 0-8 to 0-3 advantage after twelve minutes.

Tommy Brennan put the visitors ahead after a mere eleven seconds, but they were destined to score just one more point from open play – and that didn’t arrive until Cody Comerford obliged in the 45th minute.

Eamon Wickham came up with an instant response to that opening score, after Andrew Moran caught Tírnan Doyle’s puck-out and delivered a handpass, and that set the tone for his top-notch display.

In a game featuring six wides apiece, Ben Deegan converted the first of his multiple placed balls before a carbon copy from the restart saw Wickham respond once again.

Cillian Byrne and Seán Rowley (free) pushed Wexford into a double-scores lead before Deegan hit back, with a lively start featuring seven points in four and a half minutes.

And Simon Roche posted another brace from frees before the first wide arrived, but Wexford were motoring well as Jake Molloy roamed around midfield and there was lots of space to exploit inside as a result.

Wickham’s third – after Roche and Andrew Moran combined – was followed by a neat Cathal Parker finish from an Eoin Whelan handpass, but Wexford weren’t able to sustain that early momentum.

The free-taking of Deegan hauled Laois closer, and he had seven of their points to his name when they went in for the break trailing by an infinitely more manageable 0-10 to 0-8.

While Wickham picked off his fourth and Simon Roche availed of a neat Conor O’Toole delivery to also register from play, Wexford went more than twelve minutes without another score at the end of the half and that made their task all the more difficult.

And Laois were level inside four minutes on the restart, with netminder Brochan O’Reilly converting the first of two long-range frees before Deegan maintained his accuracy.

The gap didn’t rise above one point throughout the third quarter as the stop-start exchanges continued, with the sides deadlocked on eleven, twelve, 13 and 14 points apiece.

Laois only led once during that sequence, with the Wexford points supplied by Simon Roche (free), Conor O’Toole, Andrew Moran, and Roche from another placed ball.

A Ben Deegan ’65 made it 0-14 apiece in the 49th minute, and it didn’t take a rocket scientist at that stage to work out that this clash wouldn’t be decided until the last puck.

However, it did briefly look like Wexford had established daylight at a critical stage with three scores on the trot from Simon Roche – the first two from placed balls – that left them 0-17 to 0-14 clear after 52 minutes.

Laois weren’t going away, though, as free-takers Deegan, O’Reilly and Deegan again brought them level.

And although Roche restored the home side’s lead from another placed ball in the 59th minute, Deegan wasn’t finished yet and punished a rather harsh overcarrying call against Cian Ó Tuama after the Wexford captain was surrounded at the town end.

A foul on Darragh Kehoe secured that last opportunity for Wexford to snatch it – or so they thought – but the chance for Simon Roche to be the match-winner was thwarted by that unexpected long whistle.

One surprising aspect of the game was the fact that only 16 players were used by the hosts, with a lot of talent left on the bench.

The first change was enforced, as Cathal Parker needed to be assessed for a head injury approaching half-time after a challenge that somehow didn’t result in what seemed to be a cast-iron free.

Happily, he passed his test to re-enter the fray, coming in for Michael Furlong rather than his earlier replacement, Luke Murphy, and his prominent display in the last quarter confirmed that he was clearly fit and well.

Wexford: Tírnan Doyle (Faythe Harriers); Michael Furlong (Glynn-Barntown), Darragh Kehoe (Cloughbawn), Cian Ó Tuama (Naomh Éanna, capt.); Robbie Delaney (Shelmaliers), Eoin Whelan (Fethard), Conor O’Toole (Ferns St. Aidan’s, 0-1); Páidí Doyle (St. Anne’s), Cathal Parker (Horeswood, 0-1); Andrew Moran (St. Anne’s, 0-1), Seán Rowley (Oylegate-Glenbrien, 0-1 free), Eamon Wickham (Rathnure, 0-4); Jake Molloy (Fethard), Simon Roche (Oulart-The Ballagh, 0-9, 7 frees), Cillian Byrne (Fethard, 0-1). Subs. – Luke Murphy (Faythe Harriers) for Parker, inj. (27), Parker for Furlong (43), also John Sunderland (Shelmaliers), Charlie Roark (Ferns St. Aidan’s), Dylan Purcell (Duffry Rovers), Jack Byrne (Rapparees), Doran Daly-O’Toole (Liam Mellows), Darby Purcell (Faythe Harriers), Tadhg Brohan (St. Mary’s, Rosslare), Daragh Murphy (Glynn-Barntown).

Laois: Brochan O’Reilly (0-2 frees); Diarmuid Dooley, Cathal Cuddy, Ciarán Flynn; Cormac Hogan, Eoghan Cuddy, Tom Cuddy; Cody Comerford (0-1), Conor Fitzpatrick; Tommy Brennan (0-1), Jack Breen, Ben Deegan (0-14, 13 frees, 1 ’65); Colin Byrne, Jer Quinlan, Cormac Byrne. Subs. – Mark Downey for Colin Byrne (45), James Cuddy for Fitzpatrick (56), Ciarán McKelvey for Breen (60+1).

Referee: Mark Ryan (Dublin).

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