A Conor McDonald Goal late in the 1st half and Wexford goalie Mark Fanning pulling off a brilliant penalty save to deny Shane Dooley a 49th minute goal resulted in a win that will put Wexford into top flight hurling next season
Wexford who kicked into gear first.with David Redmond and Paul Morris scoring two points inside the first three minutes. Before Dooley (two), Sean Cleary and Stephen Quirke hit back for Offaly.
When Morris scored his second point in the 17th minute it gave Wexford the lead, at 0-05 to 0-04, but that changed hands again thanks to two points from Cleary and Dooley’s third point of the game.
But Wexford always looked the more dangerous in front of goal, and after McDonald and Jack O’Connor brought them level, they hit the net.
Aaron Maddock provided the delivery from the right, and McDonald did the rest, with a powerful finish into the bottom-left corner of James Dempsey’s goal.
James Breen got yellow when he gave away the penalty, but Dooley’s effort was saved brilliantly by Fanning down to his right.
Dooley slotted the resultant 65 but Offaly were still 1-10 to 0-11 behind, and Harry Kehoe scored an important point for Wexford with 14 minutes remaining.
Wexford found it difficult to find their range in front of goal, but back to back points from Diarmuid O’Keeffe and McDonald pushed them further clear.
Offaly kept in touch, and when Oisin Kelly scored in the 68th minute the margin was back to just two points. However Wexford secured victory with late points from McDonald, David Dunne and Aidan Nolan.
WEXFORD: M Fanning; S Donohue, L Ryan, J Breen; D Reck, M O’Hanlon, D O’Keeffe (0-02); J O’Connor (0-01), A Maddock; D Redmond (0-01), L Chin (0-01), S Murphy; H Kehoe (0-01), C McDonald (1-06, 0-04f), P Morris (0-02).
Subs used: A Nolan (0-02) for Morris (10), Morris for Nolan (13), Nolan for Maddock (47), D Dunne (0-01) for O’Connor (56), J Guiney for Morris (56), B Carton for Redmond
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