Wexford overcome sending off to end long wait for title

"WEXFORD'S road to glory" was a fairly common theme in the profusion of purple and gold banners that decorated the N11 yesterday morning, and by tea time the road had reached its destination. The magical scenes that have become the norm during the last two seasons of the Guinness All Ireland hurling championship again flashed before the eyes of everyone present at the final at Croke Park.

The new All Ireland champions hadn't waited as long for the prize as Clare, but they had crammed almost as much disappointment into 28 years as their predecessors, managed in 81.

"These sporting occasions generate ecstasy and woe in almost equal measure, and as delirious crowds swarmed on to the pitch at the full time whistle and jubilant carloads tumbled into Wexford town yesterday evening, it was easy to forget the destruction of Limerick's dreams and their quest to put right what had gone wrong for them two years ago.

The boundary between commiseration and condescension is uncomfortably narrow in these cases, but the nature of Limerick's heroic defiance against Clare and Tipperary will live on in the minds of all who saw them as long as memories of Wexford's achievements. Not much of a consolation, but a fact.

Nonetheless, when history takes over from fading memories, Wexford's name will be on the roll of honour and their unlikely journey from Division Two across the frozen wastes of an unforgiving recent history to the All Ireland title will be recognised in print and in the engraved letters on the McCarthy Cup.

This will be a deserved recognition for a team that bloomed in the realisation of its potential and the obsessive attention to detail and tactical mastery of manager Liam Griffin and his selectors.

Whereas this was a great team effort, underlining all the improvements made by the team this championship were outstanding individual displays: from the ebullient Damien Fitzhenry in goal and on up the pitch. Damien Quigley scored 2-3 on his last All Ireland outing and his pace was expected to cause Ger Cushe serious difficulty. Expectations came to nothing as Cushe played a marvellous game.

The service to Quigley wasn't great, and high, dropping ball is meat and drink to the big Wexford full back, but he also outhurled his marker and had sufficient in hand to break out and deliver great, booming clearances that must have sent the spirits of his county soaring.

In midfield, Adrian Fenlon stood his ground with the formidable Mike Houlihan and hurled him head on. His physical resilience earned him the space to move the ball to the corners and impose himself and the team's gameplan on proceedings from an early stage.

This was a match that was won in the minds of the players and in the strategic adjustments made necessary on a day when events skidded out of control into the territory of the completely unexpected.

Managers must dread having a man sent off in big matches. But the thing they probably dread nearly as much must be dealing with the opposition having a man sent off. Enough All Irelands have been won by 14 men for it to be unexceptional in itself, but it's no guarantee of success and makes huge demands of a team.

It's possible to argue that Eamonn Scallan's 34th minute dismissal damaged Limerick more than Wexford. It concentrated the minds and gave the Leinster champions plenty to think about at half time. It also reduced the match to a tactical battle, an arena where Griffin was always going to be comfortable.

In as much as a pattern became apparent, it seemed to be that Wexford were happy to leave Limerick's spare man to his own devices when he was in defensive positions but once he moved whether it was Dave Clarke or Ciaran Carey - up the field, a forward - generally Rory McCarthy or Martin Storey - dropped back to track him.

The second half also saw the momentum of the match falter considerably. A thunderous first half gave way to a cautious error strewn second 35 minutes and with the scores drying up, the team in front - Wexford were never behind from the 20th minute on - was going to benefit.

Those who wanted to read the portents at the start of the match would have been drawn in two directions. Wexford brought in George O'Connor for the injured Sean Flood and moved Larry O'Gorman back to wing back - the team deprived of an important defender and gaining an important midfielder at the one stroke.

George O'Connor has played many stormers on bleak and heartbreaking days in the past and yesterday he pitched in what he could to a collective effort that rewarded him with a richly deserved All Ireland medal, but you could see the toll that it was taking on him.

Wexford were accordingly at a loss, but they made the most of the pre match psyching opportunities by completing their parade around the pitch while Limerick were exploding off into nervous looking routines as soon as the teams had filed halfway around.

Even during the presentation to President Robinson, Wexford stood to attention looking relaxed, while Limerick jigged up and down, managing to look apprehensive as well as disorganised at the same time.

This may appear a bit too post hoc a rationalisation, as the early exchanges disputed any suggestion that Limerick were rattled. They established a 0-5 to 0-1 lead after 15 minutes, whereas Wexford were hitting worrying wides. Four of Limerick's forwards had gotten on the scoreboard and the match was going their way.

In the pivotal confrontations on the 40s, both centre backs were gaining the upper hand. Liam Dunne hurled exceptionally well on Gary Kirby during the whole afternoon but the Patrickswell man looked inhibited from an early injury to the fingers of his right hand.

The difference as the match wore on was that in the battle of the captains Martin Storey began to discomfit Carey and, after a scoring burst in the second quarter, went on to play a vital second half role, winning and distributing ball with aplomb while also looking the most likely Wexford forward to do scoring damage.

The early revelation was Limerick's young wing forward Barry Foley. He took a quick three points off an out of sorts Rod Guiney and a further point off Larry O'Gorman who slowed his gallop to the extent that Foley was replaced in the second half.

O'Gorman might have been a loss to the middle but he played splendidly at wing back. His marking was efficient and he also got up the field to take two points, and was a prominent rallying force throughout the match.

The score that changed the course of the match came in the 20th minute when Garry Laffan's high ball was broken down to Tom Dempsey, who placed it beyond Joe Quaid's reach to push Wexford 1-3 to 0-5 ahead.

The goal wasn't out of the blue, as dropping ball was causing Limerick's full back line all sorts of problems. In addition, Laffan was having his best match of the summer, showing for ball and moving around to Mike Nash's evident discomfort.

The young Wexford full forward also scored three points' from play during the course of the afternoon and also drew one of two spectacular saves from Quaid - the other came from Larry Murphy in the 47th minute - when having broken through the Limerick defence, he fired a hard shot that the goalkeeper batted away instinctively as it travelled straight at him at head height.

Within minutes, the match had taken another turn. A general free for all around the Limerick goal resulted finally in Adrian Fenlon and Carey being booked. At the throw in to restart the match, in the 34th minute, Scallan and Stephen McDonagh pulled high at each other but Scallan had a second swipe and referee Pat Horan dismissed him immediately.

If Scallan was unlucky it was only because worse had gone unpunished a minute previously. The referee was right and needed to take action in order to restore order to the match.

Laffan started the second half explosively. Two wides and a point gave evidence that Wexford had come out fighting and when John O'Connor turned to the Hill in order to wind up the county's supporters, it said everything about the team's intent.

Limerick managed only four points in the whole second half, and two of them were in the last four minutes. During the lengthy hiatus that afflicted the scoring rate, Wexford did enough to maintain their lead, and for the most part led by three or four points.

The late scores by Clarke and Carey suggested that Limerick's flair for rescuing hopeless causes might again be demonstrated. But, unfortunately, there had been too much waste in the second half. Seven wides squandered good opportunities and sapped morale as the full throated roars from Hill 16 mocked each failed attempt.

There were furious substitutions as Limerick replaced three of their attack, including sending on a defender Turlough Herbert, but the key to Wexford's defence was stuck in the door. Substitute Brian Tobin did hit the net but the whistle had sounded long before for a free out for reasons that were not altogether clear but presumed to be the result of a square ball, a refereeing decision not supported by video evidence.