Wexford blow Carlow away in late surge

A lacklustre encounter only sprung to life in the final quarter as, in racing terms, Wexford stayed on to see off the Carlow challenge in this National League Division Four encounter at Netwatch Cullen Park on Saturday.

There was nothing between the two sides in the first half with Carlow opening the scoring with a Ross Dunphy point inside the opening minute. He could very well have scored a goal as he had a man inside him who was completely unmarked.

A Darragh Foley free doubled the lead before the visitors opened their account on 12 minutes with a Sean Nolan free. After that, Carlow played the possession game while Wexford registered ten wides in the first half.

Dunphy and Foley both added points while Wexford had Paraic Hughes, Mark Rossiter and Niall Hughes to thank as the sides went in tied at 0-04 each at the interval.

The second half commenced in a similar vein to the first with neither side willing to take risks. Jamie Clarke was unlucky for Carlow when he just failed to take hold of a Foley flick pass which would have put him through on goal.

With fourteen minutes to go the sides were locked at 0-07 each.

Wexford found that little bit extra and Mark Rossiter's point gave them momentum. Graeme Cullen also pointed and in the context of what had gone before a two-point margin was huge.

Carlow hardly got a look in in the final ten minutes. When they lost the ball, Wexford swept up field and Ben Brosnan, who had been introduced into the action, was on hand to shoot low and hard to the bottom left-hand corner of the net.

After that, the visitors ruled with Carlow fading. For Wexford, Conor Kinsella landed two points in a row, Tom Byrne another and centre-back, Dylan Furlong embellished the victory with a late, late point. It