Wexford set the pace but Cork catch them on the line with late goal

Allianz National Hurling League, Division 1A: Cork 2-14 Wexford 0-18

Something like this could happen at any time of the year, in any competition, but when it happens in the League nobody knows how to build a case for the prosecution or the defence. Wexford led from the first minute to the 72nd, and then lost to the game to an opportunistic goal from the Cork substitute Cormac Beausang, after Wexford had failed to cope with a long dropping ball. It only sounds simple when you put it like that.

After a fitful, disjointed performance, Cork maintained their unbeaten record and qualified for the semi-finals of the League with a game to spare. Cork will take some encouragement from whatever resourcefulness kept them in the game, but they trailed by six points after 20 minutes and still trailed by six points 25 minutes later, and nothing about their response in that time was urgent or convincing.

Wexford were the better team for long periods of the game, and if they had been more clinical, especially in the final quarter, the game would have been settled in their favour before Cork were halfway across the tightrope. Instead their wides tally crept up to 10 – more than three times Cork’s total – and the Cork goalkeeper Patrick Collins made a critical save from Jack O’Connor five minutes from the end of normal time, when the Wexford substitute looked certain to find the net.

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“If you want to be an intercounty hurler the most important thing is your character, your mentality,” said the Cork manager Pat Ryan. “And we’re looking for that from the lads. But there are definitely areas we need to look at. Why are we not going after the game from day one? Teams are setting the tempo for us at the moment and then we sort of come back at them. You won’t get away with that in championship. Teams will build up too much of a lead.”

In direct response to their humiliation at Clare’s hands a fortnight ago Wexford tore into Cork from the start. Their tackling and foraging were terrific and Cork’s mixum-gatherum of novices and established players were knocked out of their stride. Having shipped 4-17 in the first half a fortnight ago, Wexford held Cork scoreless for the first 20 minutes, buttressed by the return of the excellent Mathew O’Hanlon to their defence, and the general elimination of self-harm.

The return of Lee Chin made a huge impact too. He was busy, and aggressive and productive, and his sheer presence in the middle third made a difference on both sides of the ball. His long-range free taking is sometimes erratic, but yesterday it was very good, and he landed four points from play too.

Wexford’s inability to put Cork away, though, left the game hanging in the balance, and the home team finally came up with something. The introduction of Seamus Harnedy for his first appearance of the season made an appreciable difference in the closing 15 minutes and he had a hand in three Cork scores, including the goal. He looked refreshed and far from finished.

Ryan has shuffled the deck extensively for every game, exposing as many inexperienced players as he dares to this level of competition, and in that context it is too much to expect coherent displays every time. But the kind of energy and hustling that he is demanding from Cork as a first principle was absent for long stretches of the first half, and he will be irritated by that.

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Cork failed to score until a Shane Kingston free after 20 minutes, and by then Wexford had landed six points. Corner back Simon Donohoe scored a beauty from centre field – the first of two – after a lovely move out of defence, and the lively Rory Higgins slotted his first score after a turnover inside the Cork 45. By the end, half a dozen of Wexford’s scores had come from turnovers.

Cork’s build-up play improved just in time to rack up a few scores before the break, but they still trailed by 0-10 to 0-6 at half-time, and their situation didn’t improve until Padraig Power struck for Cork’s first goal, 10 minutes into the second half. A long shot for a point dropped short, and Power somehow fished a contact on the dropping ball with an outstretched hurley.

Cork brought the deficit back to a point on a couple of occasions without drawing level, and it looked like Wexford might have done enough. And then.

Cork: P Collins, N O’Leary, E Downey, E Roche, E Twomey, C Joyce, T O’Connell, B Roche, L Meade, D Dalton, C Cahalane, S Barrett 0-3, S Kingston 0-8, 0-7 frees, P Power 1-1, B Hayes 0-1. Subs: S Harnedy for Dalton 46 mins; J O’Connor 0-1 for Hayes 46 mins; R Downey for Meade 48 mins; C Beausang 1-0 for Twomey 67 mins; A Cadogan for Power 70 mins. Sent off: Jack O’Connor, 74 mins.

Wexford: J Lawlor, S Donohoe 0-2, M O’Hanlon, S Reck, I Carty, D Reck, C Flood, D O’Keeffe, C Dunbar, C Hearne, L Og McGovern, C McGuckin 0-1, L Chin 0-8, 0-5 frees, C McDonald 0-1, R Higgins 0-2. Subs: M Dwyer for McDonald 15 mins; K Foley for D Reck 33 mins; J O’Connor for McGovern 44 mins; R O’Connor for Higgins 54 mins; D Clarke for O’Hanlon 56 mins.

Referee: S Cleere (Kilkenny).