Wexford fight back with stirring second-half display to make Leinster semi-finals

Laois 0-16 Wexford 0-17

Wexford progressed to the Leinster under-20 hurling semi-finals to face Dublin following a narrow one-point win over Laois at MW Hire O’Moore Park in Portlaoise on Tuesday evening.

Keith Rossiter’s charges produced a fine start to the second half that turned the game in their favour and gave them enough of a cushion to withstand a late Laois onslaught.

Laois had the better of the exchanges in the first half with Dan Delaney excellent on frees while Philip Tynan, Adam Kirwan and captain Tadhg Cuddy also scored.

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Cian Byrne led the Wexford resistance with Cory Byrne-Dunbar also landing a brace – however they trailed by 0-9 to 0-7 at half-time.

Wexford scored six of the first seven points of the second half and turned a two-point deficit into a three-point lead entering the final quarter.

Delaney was Laois' only scorer in that period as Byrne landed four with Byrne-Dunbar and sub Jack Redmond contributing to the dramatic turnaround.

Laois recovered somewhat through subs Eddie Critchley and Shaun Fitzpatrick but the gap was still three entering the final minutes of injury-time thanks to a monster score from AJ Redmond.

Laois did get late points from Cody Comerford and Cillian Dunne and had one last chance but they lost the Wexford puck-out and time was up.

LAOIS: Paddy Hassett; Ian Shanahan, Lawson Obular, Danny Brennan; Pádraig Brennan, Niall Coss, Philip Tynan (0-1); Cody Comerford (0-1), Tadhg Cuddy (0-1); Dan Delaney (0-7, six frees), Cillian Dunne (0-3, two frees), Cathal Murphy; James Duggan , Noah Quinlan, Adam Kirwan (0-1).

Subs: Tomas Keyes for Murphy (35 mins), Shaun Fitzpatrick (0-1) for Kirwan (47), Eddie Critchley (0-1) for Cuddy (54), Colin Byrne for Delaney (58)

WEXFORD: Cian Byrne; Liam Cassin, Liam Schokman, AJ Redmond (0-1); Joe Barrett, Cian Molloy, Conor Foley; Darragh Carley (0-1), Luke Kavanagh; Corey Byrne-Dunbar (0-4), Cian Brown, Shamey O'Hagan (0-1); David Codd, Cian Byrne (0-7, five frees), JJ Twamley.

Subs: Jack Redmond (0-1) for Kavangh (h-t), Tommy Kinsella (0-2)for Twamley (50 mins), Josh Sheil for Browne (59), Cian Doyle for O'Hagan (61)

Referee: David Hughes (Kilkenny).