Galway eased well clear of Wexford after dubious opening goal

Still, Michael Jacob and his fellow mentors were entitled to feel aggrieved after the events of the 34th minute, when the teams were deadlocked on 0-10 each after an early equaliser on the restart from sharpshooter Seán O’Brien.

Dublin referee Rory Hanley was playing an advantage for a foul on a Galway attacker, and he clearly blew the whistle to indicate he was awarding the free instead before midfielder Seán Moran crashed the sliotar into the town end net.

The score was allowed to stand amid consternation from the Wexford sideline, and the mentors were quite right to let the young official know what they thought of his bizarre and erroneous interpretation of the rules – both at the time, and after his final whistle signified a ten-point defeat for the home team.

Hopefully the assessor will have a word in his ear too, because you simply cannot allow the play to continue after blowing the whistle, regardless of the circumstances.

While that goal may have left a bitter taste, we have to be honest too and ask ourselves if Galway would have won regardless.

I believe they would have been successful, and certainly there was no disputing their superiority after that early second-half controversy.

Results from this Tier 1 round-robin have been unpredictable to say the least, and after the weekend it’s Galway and Dublin who advance direct to the penultimate stage, while Wexford and Kilkenny will take on Offaly and Kildare respectively in the quarter-finals.

There’s a short turnaround before the Model County youngsters travel to the Faithful Fields outside Kilcormac for next Saturday’s 5.30 p.m. throw-in, but it’s knockout all the way now and they will need to be a lot sharper overall to maintain interest in the championship.

Early-comers were hoping for a repeat of the previous Saturday’s fine one-goal win over Kilkenny at the same venue, and there was little to separate the teams before Galway opened up the Wexford rearguard relentlessly after grabbing that first goal.

The game had already drifted away from the hosts (trailing by 2-17 to 0-12) when defender Oisín Moore was dismissed on a second yellow card in the 52nd minute, and the only item to cheer about thereafter from a Wexford point of view was a consolation penalty goal from the accurate Seán O’Brien.

The over-reliance on the Rathgarogue-Cushinstown ace – grandson of sixties hero Jimmy O’Brien – for scores is an obvious area that will need to be addressed before Saturday, although he’s such an emerging talent that it’s only natural to see a great deal of the team’s attacking play channelled through him.

He performed mainly on the ’40 in this game, after Ciarán Gethings moved back to take up his customary sweeping role and Oisín Moore was handed the poisoned chalice of marking Galway ace Brian Callanan.

The corner-forward was in irresistible form and finished with 1-6 of his 1-9 from play, with Jack Nolan having been assigned man-marking duties long before he crowned a man of the match performance with Galway’s third goal in additional time.

The sides were level on seven occasions overall during a well-contested opening half, with Callanan and O’Brien doing the bulk of the scoring at either end.

Galway centre-back Jonah Donnellan was the spare man in their half of the field while Gethings carried out a similar function for Wexford, with the visitors’ sweeper proving difficult to play around from the off.

Ciarán Leen and Callanan (free) had the first two points before O’Brien set about building on his 0-10 and 0-13 hauls from the first two outings, punishing a push on the lively Conor Fanning in the sixth minute.

Wing-back Cathal Sinnott quickly added an excellent leveller, catching a clearance by Galway’s Dara Burke and returning it over the town-end posts with interest.

A lead score followed from a long-range free by Ciarán Gethings for Wexford, who had opted to use the wind first after captain Jack Dunne won the toss.

The classy Callanan nailed two fine scores from play, with an O’Brien free after another foul on Fanning sandwiched in between.

That left it 0-4 apiece early in the second quarter, but Callanan was proving unstoppable as he veered from the right flank to the left and arrowed over a beauty from under the stand.

Jack Dunne snapped up a loose ball to equalise once more for a home side that shot seven of their eleven wides in the first-half, with Galway finishing on 15 after becoming sloppy and wayward in the last quarter after victory had been wrapped up.

Seán O’Brien edged Wexford 0-6 to 0-5 in front from a free, only for marauding Galway captain Cathal Maloney to latch on to a Jonah Donnellan handpass and hit a neat reply in the 24th minute.

The exhibition-style hurling from Brian Callanan continued with his fourth point from play, a stylish over-the-shoulder effort, but Wexford midfielder Kevin O’Mahony replied before Ciarán Leen made it 8-7 in favour of the Connacht side.

In truth, Wexford needed a few goals to give them a cushion with the elements to be faced, and the one clear opening they crafted was ruined by a piece of cynical, but perfectly understandable, defending.

With no black card at this level, Robert Burke was happy to accept yellow after wrapping his arms around Seán Hyland in the 30th minute when the Enniscorthy lad had a green flag in his sights following a lovely diagonal pass from the left flank by Conor Fanning.

Wexford had to settle for a fifth pointed free from Seán O’Brien, and he also closed the scoring in the half with a sixth after Brian Callanan (free) and Eamonn McGlynn had struck first in additional time.

With Hyland now at full-forward and Colin Carley on the right wing, Wexford resumed brightly when O’Brien was awarded an advantage after being fouled, and he didn’t need the fall-back option of a free as he knocked over the first of his two points from play instead (0-10 each).

That controversial first Galway goal followed, but Wexford did create a couple of chances in the immediate aftermath that might have made a big difference if they were taken.

Colin Carley seemed set to rattle the net after rival netminder Seán Kelly was caught in possession, but Jonah Donnellan got back to save his side with a goal-line block.

Brian Callanan had sent over a free 30 seconds beforehand, and then added his fifth point from play before Seán O’Brien shaved the outside of the far post after racing in from the right in the 39th minute.

Goalkeeper Kelly and O’Brien went on to exchange points from frees before Seán Hyland made a strong run but lost the ball in a tackle when Colin Carley was free and awaiting a pass.

When Carley was fouled and O’Brien narrowed arrears to 1-13 to 0-12, there was still hope for Wexford.

However, it had disappeared a mere 50 seconds later, after Ciarán Leen pointed from the restart before Paddy Quigley’s short puck-out routine didn’t go according to plan.

Callanan pounced on a defender and released Stephen Keane for a solo goal that made it 2-14 to 0-12, and there was no mercy shown by Galway as Ronan Cahalan, Callanan, Jamie Ryan and Keane increased their lead to a game-high twelve points.

A foul on substitute Rhys Wickham led to the consolation goal in the 58th minute, with Seán O’Brien lashing the sliotar low and into the right corner of the net.

The first fresh face introduced, Jamie Kennedy, added a well-taken point, while O’Brien landed a ’65 after Seán Kelly made a top-notch save to keep out a Seán Hyland piledriver.

Unfortunately, the long puck-out that followed broke kindly for Brian Callanan, and he added the third Galway goal to crown his memorable display before O’Brien closed the scoring with his second point from play.

Wexford: Paddy Quigley (Bannow-Ballymitty); Ian Reilly (Rathnure), Eoin Hughes (Ballynastragh Gaels), Oisín Moore (Oulart-The Ballagh); Cathal Sinnott (Glynn-Barntown, 0-1), Ryan Donohoe (Rapparees), Jack Nolan (Oylegate-Glenbrien); Jack Dunne (Oulart-The Ballagh, capt., 0-1), Kevin O’Mahony (St. Martin’s, 0-1); Seán Hyland (Rapparees), Seán O’Brien (Rathgarogue-Cushinstown, 1-10, 0-7 frees, 1-0 pen., 0-1 ’65), Conor Fanning (Liam Mellows); Ciarán Gethings (Ballynastragh Gaels, 0-1 free), Colin Carley (Glynn-Barntown), Darren Rossiter (Gusserane). Subs. – Jamie Kennedy (Naomh Éanna, 0-1) for Rossiter (49), Peter Wickham (Oulart-The Ballagh) for Gethings (52), Paddy Keavey (Ballygarrett) for O’Mahony (54), Rhys Wickham (Oulart-The Ballagh) for Carley (56), Adam O’Connell-Byrne (Askamore) for Dunne (56), also Martin Dempsey (Oulart-The Ballagh), Jack Gethings (Ballynastragh Gaels), Ben Harpur (Oulart-The Ballagh), Bobby Murphy (Bannow-Ballymitty).

Galway: Seán Kelly (0-1 free); Cathal Maloney (capt., 0-1), Dara Burke, Gavin Maher; Brendan Fox, Jonah Donnellan, Robert Burke; Eoghan Mulleady, Seán Moran (1-0); Ciarán Leen (0-3), Ronan Murphy, Jamie Ryan (0-1); Brian Callanan (1-9, 0-3 frees), Eamonn McGlynn (0-1), Stephen Keane (1-1). Subs. - Ronan Cahalan (0-1) for McGlynn (45), Cillian Roche (0-1) for Keane (56), Rhys O’Connor for R Burke (56), Mikey Maher for Donnellan (59), Jack Shaughnessy for Leen (59).

Referee: Rory Hanley (Dublin).

FOOTNOTE: On such a big occasion for the Minors, it was disappointing that their team details weren’t included in the programme for the main event, produced by DBA on behalf of the Leinster Council. A free photocopied teamsheet was available to patrons instead, but surely it wouldn’t have taken much effort to devote two pages to the Minor line-outs along with colour team photographs.

LEINSTER MHC TIER 1 ROUND-ROBIN

P W D L F A PTS

Galway 3 2 0 1 67 71 4

Dublin 3 2 0 1 52 49 4

Wexford 3 1 0 2 59 69 2

Kilkenny 3 1 0 2 71 60 2