Supersub O Conghaile snatches late, late winner for minors

Sat, 21st June 2014

DUBLIN 0-17 WEXFORD 0-16

Supersub Eoin O Conghaile was the late, late hero as his injury-time point saw the Dubs snatch a dramatic one-point victory over Wexford in Saturday's Electric Ireland Leinster MHC semi-final at Parnell Park.

The Slaneysiders deservedly held a 0-16 to 0-14 lead heading into the final minutes, mainly through the freetaking accuracy of full-forward Joe Coleman, but Dublin finished with a scoring surge as points from O Conghaile, Riain McBride and O Conghaile again saw them progress to the provincial decider on July 6 (v Kilkenny, who defeated Laois in their semi-final).

The was nothing between the sides in this evenly contested duel all afternoon with freekakers Coleman and Dublin's Seán Grey accounting for the majority of their respective county's scores and by the break Wexford led 0-9 to 0-7.

Seán Grey converted four frees in the opening period with points from the hard-working Riain McBride, who scored three valuable points in total from play, a superb Chris Bennett point and another from Eoghan McHugh were the Dublin scorers.

However, Dublin were nearly left to rue a wide tally that read 14 over the course of the 60 minutes including ten during the first half as the Slaneysiders were more clinical in the scoring zone.

Goal-scoring chances were at a premium all afternoon but Con O'Callaghan created one in each half, his first half effort in the tenth minute striking the post while in the second period he had his effort parried by Wexford netminder Darragh Hughes.

The second half followed a similar pattern to the first in this nip-and-tuck battle with neither county establishing any sort of extended dominance in the game.

In the final minutes Wexford sub Cormac O Mordha tried to angle a goal effort to the net with keeper Jonathan Treacy stranded but full-back Shane Barrett had cleverly anticipated the shot and got back to stop his angled effort and clear his lines.

Still Wexford looked the more likely winners in the concluding minutes as they battled hard to protect their two-point advantage. But Dublin refused to buckle and reeled in their opponents with points from O Conghaile and McBride before supersub O Conghaile struck over a superb effort from the stand side with the last puck of the game two minutes into added time.

SCORERS - Dublin:

S Grey 0-7 (0-7f), R McBride 0-3, E McHugh, E O Conghaile 0-2 each, C Bennett, C O'Callaghan, E Conroy 0-1 each. Wexford: J Coleman 0-10 (0-10f), D Pepper 0-2, B Edwards, N Rossiter, C Dunbar, S Kelly 0-1 each.

DUBLIN:

J Treacy; M McCallion, S Barrett, D Butler; S Howard, J Malone, P O'Dea; D Burke, R McBride; S Grey, E McHugh, C Bennett; C O'Callaghan, S Ryan, M Oliver. Subs: E Conroy for Oliver (39), E O Conghaile for Bennett (48), C O'Sullivan for Burke (54), F De Fáitligh for Ryan (57).

WEXFORD:

D Hughes; B Edwards, M O'Brien, C Firman; N Rossiter, A Maddock, R White; C Dunbar, J Firman; J O'Connor, D Barden, N Hughes; D Pepper, J Coleman, S Kelly. Sub: M Joyce for Hughes (40), C O Mordha for Barden (54).