![\"Barry](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/CUEW4PD3FMA7FCIH75MKXGGKZ4.jpg\")
Barry O’Connor and Philip Dempsey of St Martin’s celebrate. Photograph: James Lawlor\/Inpho <\/p>\nLeinster club SFC hurling quarter-final: St Martin\u2019s (Wexford) 1-21 Na Fianna (Dublin) 2-17<\/p>\n
For anyone who thinks the \u201clearnings\u201d of defeat are overvalued, this AIB Leinster quarter-final at Chadwicks Wexford Park stands as evidence. A year ago when St Martin\u2019s and Na Fianna met in Parnell Park, it was the Dublin champions who finished stronger and progressed down the road that led to provincial and All-Ireland titles.<\/p>\n
This time around, when the match was in the balance \u2013 seconds of the three additional minutes remaining \u2013 the Martin\u2019s didn\u2019t need to be asked twice. They quarried possession out of their defence and Diarmuid O\u2019Leary got the ball up to Rory O\u2019Connor.<\/p>\n
The Wexford forward was disrupted by Conor McHugh but somehow regained possession and as he struggled to get the ball away, a free was awarded by former All-Ireland referee James McGrath, a late replacement for injured Kilkenny official Se\u00e1n Cleere.<\/p>\n
The ball ran for Ben Maddock who stuck it over the bar but the free had been signalled. Any jitters O\u2019Connor might have experienced addressing what would be the winning shot, were alleviated when the ball was talked in by dissenting voices and duly dispatched.<\/p>\n
There was time \u2013 as there always is in such circumstances \u2013 for Na Fianna to conjure one more chance but the Martin\u2019s defence held firm and the All-Ireland champions were out. O\u2019Connor was jubilant after the late deliverance.<\/p>\n
\u201cWinter hurling is about territory. I\u2019ll always say it. It\u2019s where your big ball winners in the forwards have to come up trumps. You\u2019re not going to get lovely balls into corners where you run out, flick it up, put it over the bar.<\/p>\n
Barry O’Connor and Philip Dempsey of St Martin’s celebrate. Photograph: James Lawlor\/Inpho <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s about winning the ball on the break. The ball went down into the D. It flicked out. I think David [Codd] caught it. Diarmuid O\u2019Leary got it [away].<\/p>\n
\u201cAll week I\u2019ve been saying this game is going to be slow and dirty. Get the ball up inside there 45 and see what happens. I\u2019ll be honest with you. I wasn\u2019t thinking of scoring from out on the sideline for that. I was head down to try and draw a free.<\/p>\n
\u201cWithin reason I was trying to see where it would take me. I didn\u2019t hear a whistle, and I was looking around and I threw it out.\u201d<\/p>\n
On a lovely, mild afternoon in Chadwicks Wexford Park with the pitch in fine shape for November, it was St Martins, who looked the more convincing for most of the first half. Although both teams were error-prone \u2013 sharing 18 missed chances between them \u2013 the home side got on a scoring run to lead by five, 0-10 to 0-5 after 25 minutes of edging in front only to be pulled back.<\/p>\n
Within four minutes, the champions wiped out the deficit. The critical score came when Peter Feeney got down the left wing from half back and played the ball over to Se\u00e1n Currie, who caught it and managed to kick to the net. It was redemptive for Currie, who moments earlier had been penalised for overcarrying for Rory O\u2019Connor to fire over the 10th point.<\/p>\n
Colin Currie then stepped up with two points, one a free from inside his own 65 before D\u00f3nal Burke whipped over a wonderful score from the left-hand sideline.<\/p>\n
Barry O\u2019Connor, whose size and ball winning capacity caused trouble all afternoon was even more of a handful this year than 12 months ago when he was already awkward enough. Courtesy of an assist from cousin, Rory, he levelled the match at half-time.<\/p>\n
![\"Sean](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/4WGQOIKGTFJ57YDZME6ITXNSKQ.jpg\")
Sean Currie of Na Fianna on his way to scoring a goal is tackled by Diarmuid O’Leary of St Martin’s. Photograph: James Lawlor\/Inpho <\/p>\n
Again, the scoreboard was nip and tuck but after Martin\u2019s had crept ahead 0-14 to 1-10, they conceded another goal, AJ Murphy dispatching after a great catch by D\u00f3nal Burke. Seconds later, Rory O\u2019Connor defiantly responded with a point. The Wexford champions weren\u2019t going away.<\/p>\n
In the 50th minute, their key score came. O\u2019Leary cleared a ball up to Rory O\u2019Connor and he supplied cousin, Barry with the goal scoring assist.<\/p>\n
It was a funny match in some ways. The error count continued in the second half and the eventual winners landed themselves in hot water by losing a wealth of ball despite having an extra man \u2013 David Codd, who in fact played very well \u2013 at the back. Liam Rushe played a similar role for Na Fianna.<\/p>\n
It could have been more costly. At the end, Colin Currie got in behind the defence but his shot was taken off the line by Codd and minutes later, AJ Murphy exploited yet another mix-up to carve out a chance but his shot whistled over the bar rather than into the net. Still, Se\u00e1n Currie added a point for an apparently decisive 2-17 to 1-18 lead.<\/p>\n
In a reversal of last year, Martin\u2019s finished the stronger. The O\u2019Connors rattled off three injury-time points \u2013 Rory\u2019s brother Jack had already supplied four \u2013 to send an energy surge through the ground.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were just trying to create a bit of history for ourselves and see where this would take us,\u201d said Rory O\u2019Connor.<\/p>\n
It takes them into a semi-final against Naas, who they defeated in a tough battle last year with dreams of a first provincial final flickering, although an intermediate football match is also on next week\u2019s horizon.<\/p>\n
ST MARTIN\u2019S: C Quirke; E O\u2019Leary, C Firman (capt.), P Dempsey; D Waters, D O\u2019Leary, J Barrett; David Codd, A Maddock; J O\u2019Connor (0-4, 1f), Darren Codd (0-2), J Firman (0-2); M Coleman (0-1), B O\u2019Connor (1-2), R O\u2019Connor (0-9, 6f).<\/p>\n
Subs: B Maddock for A Maddock (46 mins), B Stafford (0-1) for Coleman (48 mins), S Audsley for O\u2019Leary (59 mins).<\/p>\n
NA FIANNA: J Tracey; M Murphy (0-1), C McHugh, S Burke; L Rushe, P O\u2019Dea, P Feeney; B Ryan (0-2), J Kavanagh; S Currie (1-3), D Burke (capt; 0-2), J Meagher (0-1); C Currie (0-6, 3f), T Brennan, AJ Murphy (1-2).<\/p>\n
Subs: C McCarthy for Brennan (half-time), L Stacey for Kavanagh (52 mins).<\/p>\n
Referee: J McGrath (Westmeath).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leinster club SFC hurling quarter-final: St Martin\u2019s (Wexford) 1-21 Na Fianna (Dublin) 2-17 For anyone who thinks the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":130976,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2179,49722,61,60,43,14612],"class_list":["post-130975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-dublin-gaa","tag-gaa-club-hurling-championship","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-wexford-gaa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130975"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130975\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/130976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}