Jack Redmond blasted a hat-trick as Wexford scored a psychological blow over Kildare in Saturday’s closing Division 1B Allianz Hurling League clash at sunny but nippy Chadwicks Wexford Park.<\/p>\n
With Dublin comfortably mastering Carlow, it deprived both these sides from gaining promotion – Wexford seeking an immediate return to 1A, while Kildare were hunting a second successive promotion if their first campaign outside Division 2 in 46 years.<\/p>\n
This amounted to a dress-rehearsal for the rematch of the sides in the Leinster Championship on the third weekend of April.<\/p>\n
And emerging talent Redmond helped Wexford forge a confident 1-10 to 0-8 half-time lead before the Rathnure sharpshooter added two second-half blows in a resounding victory.<\/p>\n
Kildare settled into a 0-3 to 0-1 lead after seven minutes courtesy of Gerry Keegan and David Qualter (two frees).<\/p>\n
But Wexford soon found their footing to tie on 0-3 apiece ten minutes in as Simon Roche\u2019s early brace was added to by a Jack Redmond leveller.<\/p>\n
The home-side had threatened the goal in the third minute only for Se\u00e1n Rowley to flash across the face of goal and wide.<\/p>\n
But the Oylegate-Glenbrien man made amends when edging Wexford in front for the first time after fifteen minutes.<\/p>\n
Although Jack Sheridan quickly restored parity (0-4 apiece), the purple and gold were hitting some rhythm and struck 1-5 without reply between the seventeenth and 28th minutes to soar ahead 1-9 to 0-4.<\/p>\n
Captain Lee Chin and Darren Codd each chipped in with doubles while wing-back Damien Reck also bisected the uprights as Jack Redmond rattled the net from a Chin assist in the twentieth minute.<\/p>\n
Reck was bringing his influence to bear, and the defender forced a fine save from Kildare stopper Mark Doyle from a Jack Redmond pass.<\/p>\n
Despite surging eight points clear, Wexford wouldn\u2019t have been happy with their finishing, and they reached the interval with a 1-10 to 0-8 advantage but having struck twelve wides \u2013 double Kildare\u2019s tally.<\/p>\n
The purple and gold were certainly sharper on the resumption, as they scorched Kildare for 1-3 without reply to surge ahead by 2-13 to 0-8 after 41 minutes.<\/p>\n
Rowley, Diarmuid O\u2019Leary and Roche launched the points while Jack Redmond sank his second personal goal from a cross-field delivery by Conor Hearne.<\/p>\n
There was an air of inevitability about the outcome from there even though Kildare showed spirited resistance when shaving the gap to 2-14 to 0-11 after 46 minutes through Sheridan, Keegan and substitute Cian Boran.<\/p>\n
And Brian Dowling\u2019s men demonstrated further resolve when Qualter brought it back to 2-19 to 1-12 when netting after 51 minutes from a Jack Sheridan set up.<\/p>\n
But Jack Redmond lashed back with his hat-trick score, blasting home from a Cian Byrne pass, to reassert Wexford\u2019s command 53 minutes in (3-19 to 1-12).<\/p>\n
And after a subsequent surge of Wexford points (3-23 to 1-14), they were twice denied goals in the 60th minute \u2013 sub Rory Higgins firing inches wide from a Chin lay off, while Cian Byrne met with a masterful block by Cathal McCabe.<\/p>\n
Regardless, Wexford struck a real blow ahead of the big championship rematch next month.<\/p>\n
Wexford: Mark Fanning; David Clarke, Conor Foley, Darragh Carley; Diarmuid O\u2019Leary (0-2), Conor Hearne, Damien Reck (0-2); Lee Chin (0-7, 2 frees), Richie Lawlor (0-1); Darren Codd (0-2), Simon Roche (0-5), Ciar\u00e1n O\u2019Connor; Se\u00e1n Rowley (0-3), Cian Byrne (0-2, 1 \u201965, 1 free), Jack Redmond (3-3).<\/p>\n
Subs: Cillian Byrne (0-1) for Codd (44), Stephen Martin for Reck (56), Rory Higgins (0-1) for Redmond (56), Ross Banville for O\u2019Connor (56), Eoin O\u2019Leary for Clarke (63).<\/p>\n
Kildare: Mark Doyle; Evan O\u2019Brien, Rian Boran, Dan O\u2019Meara; Simon Leacy, Paul Dolan, Harry Carroll; Daire Guerin, Alan Goss; David Qualter (0-3 frees), Jack Sheridan (0-3, 1 free), Gerry Keegan (0-5); James Dolan, Cathal McCabe (0-1), Darragh Melville.<\/p>\n
Subs: Cian Boran (0-2) for J. Dolan (44), Liam O\u2019Reilly for P. Dolan (56), Conn Kehoe for Melville (56), Se\u00e1n Whelan for Qualter (65), Cian Shanahan for McCabe (68).<\/p>\n
Referee: Colm McDonald (Antrim).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jack Redmond blasted a hat-trick as Wexford scored a psychological blow over Kildare in Saturday’s closing Division 1B…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":358854,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-358853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358853","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=358853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358853\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/358854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=358853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=358853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=358853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}