Kilanerin pull out of championship

WEXFORD SFC FINAL:NEWLY-CROWNED Wexford senior football champions Kilanerin have pulled out of the Leinster championship. Kilanerin, who won the county title on Saturday, were scheduled to play Navan O'Mahony's in their opening round game yesterday, 24 hours after winning the title for the first time since 2003.

However, club chairman Pat Murray said the decision was left to the players and they decided it would not be right to play the game just 24 hours after winning the title. "We would have loved to have represented Wexford in the Leinster championship . . . but given the knocks and injury count, we would have been fielding short at least six to seven players."

So for the first time Wexford will not be represented in the Leinster championship brought about by the failure of the County Competitions Control Committee (CCCC) to play any championship games in May, with only one round played in both senior hurling and football during the summer.

Kilanerin, inspired by Matty Forde, had defeated Gusserane, 1-12 to 0-12, at Wexford Park on Saturday. Forde scored 10 points, five from play, as Kilanerin showed tremendous resolve in the second half. Forde was instrumental in Kilanerin building up a 0-7 to 0-5 interval lead as he kicked six of their points, while Shane Cullen kept Gusserane in the contention.Kilanerin were clinging on to a 0-12 to 0-11 lead when Jim Hughes punched a goal one minute into additional time.

KILANERIN:T Hughes; S Byrne, C Kavanagh, A Jones; C Byrne, P Forde, G Hughes (0-1); S Hughes, J Hughes (1-0); M Gethings, T Boland, P Hughes; G O'Toole, J Hegarty (0-1), M Forde (0-10, four frees, one 45). Sub: B Duignam for O'Toole.

GUSSERANE:D Kehoe; W Cosgrave, P J Rossiter, R Corcoran; M Egan, K O'Grady, M Flynn; J Roche, A Flynn (0-1); J Murphy, S Cullen (0-9, three frees), K Cahill; P Wallace (0-1), S Ryan (0-1), G O'Grady. Subs: K Kehoe for Roche; F Ryan for S Ryan.

Referee:D Donovan (Volunteers).