St Anne's, Rathangan bridged a 32-year gap when they disposed of a disappointing Starlights outfit to fashion a thoroughly deserving three-point victory in their Wexford senior football final at New Ross yesterday.
It was not St Anne's most impressive display, but the victory keeps them on course for the senior championship double for they play Oulart-the-Ballagh in the hurling final on October 15th.
However, they seemed to thrive on the Starlights' challenge midway through the second half and such was the outstanding play of their defence they confined the losers to a solitary second-half point.
It was the eventual winners who made the better use of their first-half chances to lead 0-4 to 0-3 at the interval.
The south Wexford side opened the second half with a flourish of scores, two Paul Berry points and a further point from Francis Simpson to lead 0-7 to 0-3 after five minutes.
While they failed to score for the remainder of the game they held the Enniscorthy side to just a single point from Michael Donohoe seven minutes from the end.
ST ANNE'S: Diarmuid Berry; P French, Donal Berry, C White; G Barry, D Ryan, K Byrne; J Berry, D O'Connor; R Barry (0-1), R Stafford, D Fogarty; P Berry (0-2), R Doyle, F Simpson (0-4). Sub: J Simpson for Doyle.
STARLIGHTS: G O'Connor; L Boland, D Whelan, G Kavanagh; D Ivers, A Fenlon, M Gahan; P Walsh, D Ruth; T Mahon (0-1), O Kinlough (0-1), T Wall; O Connors, D Mahon, M Donohoe (0-2). Sub: J Hudson for T Mahon.
Referee: N Whelan (Fethard).
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