Wides killed Wexford in Dublin defeat, laments Darragh Egan

Wexford manager Darragh Egan bemoaned his side's poor finishing after they slipped to a two-point loss against Dublin in the Leinster hurling championship.

Despite hitting 19 wides to Dublin's six, the visitors twice fought back from five points down to draw level in injury-time at Croke Park before conceding two late frees that the clinical Donal Burke (0-13, 10f) dispatched to seal victory.

"Massively disappointed. Nobody to blame other than ourselves, that's the unfortunate reality of it," Egan told RTÉ Sport.

"Fifty-one shots to 31 and we lose the game. The wides killed us.

"They stayed going at it, there’s great spirit in there, it’s just our quality in front of the posts was not good enough.

"We have some brilliant men in there, some brilliant leaders, brilliant hurlers and ultimately they stayed going. That’s what brought us back into it.

"They could have lain down and lost by six or seven points when Dublin were getting on their run.

"But we didn’t have the quality to get it back to level pegging, which would have been a good result for us."

Wexford have now beaten Dublin only once in championship (2018) since 2008 but last year's narrow defeat didn't stop them pipping the Dubs to third in Leinster and Egan is hoping for another big result on the final day against Kilkenny to get them out of jail.

"The only thing I can take solace from is that we were in a very similar situation in 2022, and we got to a quarter-final and nearly turned Clare over," he said.

"We’re hoping that’s the path we take again."

The two-week break until the visit of Westmeath is coming at the right time for some key Wexford men carrying injuries.

"Our bodies are under pressure," said Egan. "Liam Ryan was heavily strapped, Matthew O’Hanlon. You would be