ALL-IRELAND SFC QUALIFIER ROUND FOUR Limerick 1-18 Wexford 1-17:A STRANGE mixture of delight and bitter anger pervaded the air in O'Moore Park on Saturday night after a match that was as controversial as it was compelling.
When the game ticked into injury-time Limerick trailed by three points, were a man down after Thomas Lee’s sending off, and looked dead on their feet.
Then substitute Eoghan O’Connor scored a goal and Ian Ryan converted the injury-time free that brought tears of joy from Limerick players when the final whistle blew shortly afterwards.
“They’re heroes, they’re absolute heroes,” said an emotional Limerick manager Maurice Horan. “They keep carrying the fight and they never throw in the towel. They’re absolute leaders who always show up in crucial parts of the game and always doing the right thing at the right time . . . This was a victory in memory of those defeats of the last few years.”
After the match, Wexford players were spitting mad that Ryan’s winning free had been allowed to stand. The umpire on the post closest to the ball’s flight waved it wide, but his colleague rose the white flag. After referee Derek Fahy consulted with both, he awarded the score.
“It’s unbelievable, how he can just make a decision like that,” said a livid goalkeeper Anthony Masterson. “The whole country knows he’s the world’s worst referee and he still gets to referee GAA matches . . . How long more are we going to be getting decisions wrong? I don’t care if get in trouble for this. I give up too much of my life and to go out and have a decision like that made, it’s an absolute disgrace.
“The umpire standing on the near post, under the ball, said it was wide. I’m not being misleading, I was nearest to him. Why I was so mad in my reaction was I couldn’t understand why the fella who said it was wide didn’t even argue. Why not give his opinion? He just walked away and the referee just ignored him.”
It was a shame such an enjoyable game should end in controversy. The pace was unrelenting and the contest see-sawed.
Wexford led by two at half-time and moved 1-15 to 0-13 ahead after 52 minutes, the goal from Eric Bradley.
A typically gutsy response brought Limerick back to within a point, but when Wexford clipped the next couple of scores and then Lee was red-carded for an off-the-ball altercation with Bradley, it looked like the issue had been settled. Then came the late drama.
Limerick’s luck ran out last night, however, when they drew Kerry in the next round.
LIMERICK: B Scanlon; T Stack, S Gallagher, S Lavin; J Riordan, J McCarthy, P Ranahan; S Buckley, T Lee (0-1); S Kelly (0-5), J Mullane, M Sheehan; G Collins (0-4, two frees), S O'Carroll (0-1), I Ryan (0-5,one free). Subs: J Cooke (0-2) for J Mullane (22 mins), E O'Connor (1-0) for M Sheehan (50 mins), J O'Donovan for O'Carroll (55 mins), J Kelly for J Cooke (64 mins), B Fitzpatrick for J Riordan (67 mins). Yellow Cards: P Ranahan (17 mins), G Collins (37 mins), J Kelly (63 mins), S Kelly (63 mins), E O'Connor (64 mins). Red card: T Lee (64).
WEXFORD: A Masterson; J Wadding, G Molloy, B Malone (0-1); A Morrissey (0-2), D Murphy, A Doyle; D Waters, A Flynn (0-2); PJ Banville (0-3), C Morris, E Bradley (1-0); B Brosnan (0-3, two frees) , C Lyng (0-2, frees), R Barry (0-3). Subs: P Byrne for A Doyle (33 mins), S Roche (0-1) for C Morris (53 mins), N Murphy for D Murphy (57 mins), A Doyle for A Morrissey (65 mins), C Carty for R Barry (69 mins). Yellow Cards: A Morrissey (29 mins), J Wadding (61 mins),
Referee: D Fahy(Longford).
