Kilkenny 1-27 Wexford 2-15

Wexford endured a sobering end to their quest for Allianz Hurling League glory for the first time since 1973 when they were tamed by a highly motivated Kilkenny in Sunday’s semi-final at a freezing cold Innovate Wexford Park.

A flying start seemed to have Wexford in a strong position – leading 1-2 to 0-1 after seven minutes – and when out-shooting Kilkenny by 1-3 to 0-1 at the start of the second-half to close to within 1-14 to 2-8, belief surged for their chances.

But Kilkenny overcame those brief bouts of bright Wexford play to out-master Davy Fitzgerald’s men as, with Pádraig Walsh and Cillian Buckley leading by example at the back, and TJ Reid cooking up a tasty personal salvo of 0-15 upfront, Brian Cody’s men delivered quite a statement having suffered at the hands of Wexford in three of four previous competitive clashes during the past year.

“I think we have to learn a valuable lesson from today,” Fitzgerald made clear afterwards.

“I certainly know how I feel. I’m sure the boys feel the same. There’s more in us than that

“Kilkenny wanted it so badly today it was incredible. They out-fought us big-time today and we’ve got to up it a number of gears.

“Now, in fairness, we’ve had a very decent year. We’ve been working extremely hard all year. Maybe this was one too much for us. You’re going to the well every single day and there’s only so many times you can go,” he said with regards to the superb effort in dethroning reigning league champions Galway eight days earlier.

“I am disappointed and I’m disappointed for the people that came out. All I’ll say to them is, ‘Don’t lose faith in us just yet. Just stay with us’.

“Over the last two years we’ve had a lot of good days. I can often remember them being beaten by 20 or 25 points. We weren’t beaten by anything like that and we missed a few easy scores as well. We have to learn from today.”

Wexford and Kilkenny again clash on June 9^{th next} at Nowlan Park in the concluding group-games of the Leinster championship.

Undoubtedly the laboured effort for much of Sunday’s clash isn’t a true reflection of the ability of these players. Indeed, they more than proved many doubters wrong through the manner they embraced promotion, taking on the top-flight challenge without fear and comfortably retaining their status.

While cohesion was missing on Sunday and many lines were fluffed, these players should be entrusted to gain from this harsh experience and re-emerge in championship with an even more stern challenge.

It was looking quite rosy though for Wexford’s prospects of ending a 25-year absence from the top-flight league decider after they blasted out of the traps to lead 1-2 to 0-1 after seven minutes.

Rory O’Connor fired over two frees before being fouled at the expense of a penalty, which Aidan Nolan netted to drive Wexford four points clear almost in a flash to raucous approval from their supporters amongst the 16,452 strong attendance.

But all too quickly Kilkenny established a strong grip on matters, their half-back line forming a solid base from which the black-and-amber frustrated Wexford, who were held scoreless for 25 minutes while TJ Reid led Kilkenny to an amazing 0-12 to 1-2 resurgence after 27 minutes.

It got even worse for Wexford on 32 minutes when former Good Counsel New Ross star Walter Walsh dashed in from the right to rifle to the net and make it 1-12 to 1-2.

Wexford’s lengthy scoring impasse was finally broken seconds later when Rory O’Connor fired the first of three late frees to help shave the margin to 1-13 to 1-5 at half-time, but only after Shaun Murphy prevented a last-gasp Kilkenny goal.

The resumption brought a sense of renewed promise for Wexford when Conor McDonald and Rory O’Connor (2) claimed early points.

And that hope was added to considerably when McDonald claimed a delivery from the right by Matthew O’Hanlon and out-muscled his marker before dispatching to the net to have it down to 1-14 to 2-8 after 39 minutes.

Yet again though, just as in the first-half, the early promise proved a false dawn as Wexford were found wanting in far too many sectors, and TJ Reid’s metronomic scoring touch was chief in Kilkenny efficiently stretching clear by 1-21 to 2-10 after 59 minutes.

Rory O’Connor was outstanding for Wexford, but even his tidy finishing wasn’t enough to save the day as the purple-and-gold unit simply hit quite an off day.

But it is one which is sure to fuel their determination to bounce back in vigorous fashion when they open their Leinster championship campaign at home to Dublin on May 20^th next.

Kilkenny: Eoin Murphy (0-1f); Joey Holden, Pádraig Walsh, Paddy Deegan; Conor Delaney, Cillian Buckley (0-1), Enda Morrissey (0-1); Richie Leahy (0-2), James Maher; Martin Keoghan (0-1), TJ Reid (0-15, 11fs), John Donnelly (0-2); Ger Aylward (0-2), Walter Walsh (1-1), Bill Sheehan (0-1).

Subs: Conor Fogarty for Maher (48); Liam Blanchfield for Donnelly (60); Lester Ryan for Leahy (67); 22 Luke Scanlon for Sheehan (68); 21 Pat Lyng for Keoghan (71).

Wexford – Mark Fanning; Willie Devereux, Liam Ryan, Simon Donohoe; Pádraig Foley, Matthew O’Hanlon, Diarmuid O’Keeffe; Kevin Foley, Shaun Murphy (0-1); Jack O’Connor, Rory O’Connor (0-12, 8fs), Lee Chin; Aidan Nolan, Conor McDonald (1-1), Paul Morris.

Subs: Damien Reck for Devereux (15), Harry Kehoe (0-1) for Morris (50), David Dunne for Nolan (53), Cathal Dunbar for J O’Connor (69).

Referee – Colm Lyons (Cork).