Wexford stay up after nine-goal Kilkenny thriller

Resilient Wexford denied a late Kilkenny fight-back to preserve their Liam MacCarthy Cup status with Sunday's rousing closing round-robin derby victory at sun-drenched Chadwicks Wexford Park.

With Westmeath losing to Antrim, only defeat would have condemned Wexford to relegation.

And despite a couple of Liam Óg McGovern goals generating a 4-13 to 2-12 home advantage, Wexford’s worst fears resurfaced on 62 minutes after Eoin Cody and Tom Phelan bolted Kilkenny back in front (5-17 to 4-18).

But Wexford’s unstoppable force, with Diarmuid O’Keeffe supreme in the quarter-back roll, responded with a closing flurry of points to sweep aside the danger of dropping out of the top-flight for the first time since 1923.

It wasn’t all bad news for Kilkenny either, as Dublin’s failure to get past Galway means that it is a Kilkenny-Galway provincial decider for the second summer running.

Wexford emerged amid a rousing rendition of the rebel song 'Boolavogue’ by world renowned Tenor, Anthony Kearns.

But, despite aid of the considerable wind, Wexford were off-tune early on as Kilkenny hummed sweetly, with Eoin Cody and Martin Keoghan sinking second and sixth minute goals respectively to help generate a 2-7 to 0-5 divide after seventeen minutes.

Wexford were struggling to make an impact while Cody, Adrian Mullen, Tom Phelan (two), Walter Walsh and TJ Reid sprinkled points around those anchor-goals.

A fine burst by John Donnelly paved the way for Cody to lash home the first goal to turn the tables by 1-0 to 0-1, before the Cats really sank in their claws when Walter Walsh fed Keoghan to blast open a 2-1 to 0-2 gap on six minutes.

Wides were hurting Wexford. But they gained a much needed infusion of energy when a puck-out found Jack O’Connor to force