Kelly provides extra push

O'BYRNE CUP SHIELD SEMI-FINALS Wexford 1-15 Wicklow 0-17SUBSTITUTE PAUDI Kelly's goal four minutes into the second period of extra-time proved the decisive score as it helped Wexford see off a determined Wicklow challenge in this senior football semi-final at Enniscorthy yesterday afternoon.

The sides were deadlocked at the end of 70 minutes as both sides spurned chances to clinch the match in normal time.

It was a dramatic game between the two neighbours for so early in the season.

And it was played with real pace and quality, provided more than its share of goalmouth incidents, and it was always going to take a goal to separate two evenly matches sides.

Wicklow were leading 0-11 to 0-10 with five minutes remaining when a Tony Hannon point attempt came back off the upright, which meant that Paddy Byrne’s point two minutes from the end brought the game to extra time.

The sides were still level, 0-14 each, at half-time in extra-time, but it was Kelly’s goal that gave the home side a three-point lead.

Wicklow finished strongly with points from Leighton Glynn and Tony Hannon but were unable to force a replay. Both sides finished with 14 players with Wicklow’s Nickey Mernagh sent off for two yellow cards, while Wexford’s Niall Murphy received a straight red in a separate incident.

WEXFORD: A Masterson; N Murphy, G Molloy, B Mulligan; A Flynn, B Malone (0-1), A Doyle; D Waters, R Quinlivan (0-1); B Brosnan (0-1, f), E Bradley, J Holmes (0-2); K O'Grady (0-1), S Roche (0-5, 3f), P Byrne (0-2). Subs: L Chin for Doyle; R Barry (0-2) for O'Grady; P Kelly (1-0) for Bradley; D Murphy for Flynn; A Shore for Quinlivan; C Lyng for Roche.

WICKLOW: J Flynn; C Hyland, N Gaffney, C Rossiter; B Murphy, R Finn, A Byrne; J Stafford (0-1), A Merriman; J Kelly (0-1), A O'Malley (0-3), N Mernagh (0-1); S Furlong (0-4, 0-1 free), P Burke, F Clune (0-4, 2f). Subs: D Healy for Merriman; T Hannon (0-1, f) for Clune; S Mann for Rossiter; L Glynn (0-2, 1f) for Kelly; P Dalton for Hyland; P Cronin for Furlong; T Kelly for OMalley.

Referee: J Hickey (Carlow).