By Robbie Dunne at Wexford Park
Wexford 0-20 Cork 2-22
Cork had eight points to spare over Wexford at Wexford Park to continue on in the hurling qualifiers despite some uncomfortable moments in the second half.
The Rebels dominated the opening exchanges and had three points on the scoreboard through a free from Patrick Horgan, a long-range effort from Damien Cahalane and a well-worked score that was finished off by Brian Lawton before Wexford’s Ian Byrne landed a free on four minutes to get the home side off the mark.
Cork goalkeeper Anthony Nash unleashed a monster of a puckout to begin the ensuing play and the ball landed in Conor Lehane’s fist just inside the penalty area where he made no mistake for a Cork goal. Another Horgan free and two from the excellent Lehane followed that green flag and Wexford were well and truly reeling.
Byrne brought the hosts back to within six with two pointed frees but Horgan landed a hat-trick of scores and midfielder Bill Cooper got in on the act with a point to push the visitors ten clear halfway through the half.
Cork eased off for a period but in between two Byrne frees, Seamus Harnedy landed a goal that sent Wexford even further behind on the scoreboard. David Redmond landed two scores along with another Byrne score but Cork matched them with points from Horgan (0-03) and Harnedy and they also finished the half strongest with scores from Lawton and Lehane.
At half-time the score was 2-17 to 0-09 to leave Liam Dunne's side in some serious trouble. However, they regrouped and came out with much more purpose in the second half. After a period where the sides exchanged three points apiece Wexford then sprung to life.
The Model County would land the next eight scores in a row to pull the deficit back to six points. The roar of the home crowd was getting louder with every sliotar that went over the bar. Byrne fired over six of those points along with scores from substitute Harry Kehoe and full forward Conor McDonald.
It was that man Lehane who would be the thorn in Wexford’s side yet again, however, and scored two points at a pivotal time in the game that put Cork eight in front and back into the driving seat for the remaining five minutes.
The Slaneysiders will rue the fact that they gave the Rebels such a commanding lead in the opening half but ultimately it's the Munster side who march on to Round 2 of the qualifiers.
Wexford: M Fanning; L Ryan, M O Hanlon, E Moore; A Shore, L Chin, P Foley; D Redmond(0-02), A Nolan(0-01); D O Keeffe, K Foley(0-01), I Byrne(0-12 9f); P Morris(0-01), C McDonald(0-1), L Og McGovern
Subs: A Kenny for E Moore('17), D Waters for A Nolan('30), H Keogh(0-02) for P Foley(’31), R Jacob for L Óg McGovern(’47), G Sinnott for K Foley(’65)
Cork: A Nash; D Cahalane(0-01), S McDonnell, B Murphy; A Walsh, M Ellis, C Murphy; D Kearney, B Cooper(0-02); C Lehane(1-06), P Cronin(0-01), B Lawton(0-02); A Cadogan, S Harnedy(1-01), P Horgan(0-09 5f)
Subs: S Moylan for S Harnedy(’50), D McCarthy for A Cadogan(’70), B Sullivan for P Cronin(’71)
Referee: A Kelly (Galway).
