Galway 3-24                    

Wexford 1-18

By Kevin Egan at Kenny Park

GALWAY’S first ever home match in the Leinster minor hurling championship saw Kenneth Burke’s young Tribesmen wrap up second spot in the top tier group and an automatic semi-final berth, while their dominant second half showing against Wexford will serve as a significant psychological blow in advance of what could be a semi-final rematch between the two counties in a little over a week’s time.

Like any underage match, there were mistakes and learning opportunities aplenty, with some features of the game taking a notable toll on the scoreboard. Galway played with an extra man for the last ten minutes after Wexford corner-back Conor Rochford was shown a straight red card for a chop down across the helmet of Ethan Coleman, and visiting goalkeeper Adam Southall will feel that he didn’t put his best foot forward on his debut after he got a touch on all three Galway goals, but failed to keep any of them out of the net.

It was aspects like this that led Burke to be somewhat circumspect as he reflected on his side’s 12-point win. “It was a sloppy enough game with mistakes on both sides, neither team would be too happy with their performance but we got the scores that we needed to get to pull away” he said afterwards.

“Ultimately you’d have to be happy with finishing out the group in one of the semi-final slots, that was our target and the lads are working hard, in games and in training, to improve as we go. But we’ve a lot of work to do to get to where we want to be.

“We’ll more than likely be playing Wexford again, they’ve to play a tier two team, but they were missing a few players today and that was a bit of a false scoreline, they lost a man towards the end and the game broke down a bit. It’ll be a different game if it comes to that.”

A measured response from the former St. Thomas’ player and manager, but those who made up the substantial crowd in Kenny Park, whether they came from elsewhere in Galway or if they made the long run up from Wexford, will have been in no doubt that there was a gap in quality, with the hosts ticking a lot more boxes.

Even by half-time, at which point the home side led by the bare minimum (0-13 to 1-9) it was clear that there was much more balance and depth to the Galway side.

Pictured: Galway’s Tadhg Mac Cárthaigh breaking away from Feidhlim Proctor Laird of Wexford during Saturday’s Leinster Minor Hurling Championship clash at Kenny Park. Photos: David Cunniffe.