{"id":441301,"date":"2026-05-10T05:26:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T05:26:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/441301\/"},"modified":"2026-05-10T05:26:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T05:26:12","slug":"gifted-goals-give-dublin-comfortable-victory-at-wexford-park-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/441301\/","title":{"rendered":"Gifted goals give Dublin comfortable victory at Wexford Park \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Leinster SHC: Wexford 0-22 Dublin 2-21<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">An honest day\u2019s work for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/dublin-gaa\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/dublin-gaa\/\">Dublin<\/a>, who led pretty much entirely from flag fall and can probably be forgiven for idling in front near the end. They were 11 points up on the hour mark and though <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/wexford-gaa\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/wexford-gaa\/\">Wexford<\/a> ate into that lead in a frantic closing chapter, the result was never really in doubt. Dublin have only lost once in six matches at Wexford Park since 2013. This place clearly holds no fears for them.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">It was one of those days where Wexford extended far too much of their native hospitality to the visitors. A strong breeze blew straight down the ground, meaning the one thing you couldn\u2019t do playing against it was gift the opposition a goal. Wexford handed Dublin two of them in the first half, one from a botched puck-out by Mark Fanning, the other when cornerback Darragh Carley got caught under a high ball. Killer scores.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cThe couple of goals they got were all our mistakes,\u201d said Wexford manager Keith Rossiter afterwards. \u201cWe can dress it up any way we want \u2013 we handed them the first goal and we got out of position for the second one. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cA long ball down the middle, Darragh caught out of position, the ball drops in, hits the deck and it\u2019s in. If we\u2019re positioned right there, that doesn\u2019t happen. All basic errors but at the top level, you\u2019re going to be caught with every one you make.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Ultimately, the goals were the difference in a game that was bitty and stop-start throughout. If hurling can sometimes soar like a symphony, this was more like static coming through an AM radio. A stuttering jumble of line balls and frees, rucks, throw-ins and puck-outs. Nothing flowed, nothing rhymed. <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"Wexford's Lee Chin in action against Dublin's Brian Hayes. Photograph: James Lawlor\/Inpho\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/BBFOYC5R2BSPHKNVA2FVZ5N4YM.jpg\"   width=\"800\" height=\"528\"\/>Wexford&#8217;s Lee Chin in action against Dublin&#8217;s Brian Hayes. Photograph: James Lawlor\/Inpho <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">In a game of 45 scores, 22 of them came from placed balls. Lee Chin and Donal Burke traded frees all day, both ending up with 0-14 against their name. It\u2019s probably telling that three of Burke\u2019s came from 65s, all of them after fine saves by Fanning in the Wexford goal. Whereas Dublin had five clear sights at a green flag, taking two of them, the home side hardly created a goal chance of note in the entire game.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">With the wind behind them in the first half, it was always going to be a matter of Dublin posting a score and seeing could they hang on. After a scrappy opening period, they stuck the first goal on 12 minutes, when David Purcell swooped on to a careless short puck-out and fired home. When Burke landed a point from just outside his own 45 soon after, Dublin were 1-6 to 0-2 ahead with just a quarter of an hour gone. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">It could have got ugly for the home side after that, but Fanning made up for his error with a couple of crucial saves. Chin kept Wexford in touch at the other end, potting his frees and sniping the odd one from play. But the second Dublin goal, netted by Cian O\u2019Sullivan, put clear water between the sides, leaving the visitors 2-13 to 0-10 ahead at the break. A nine-point lead for what felt more like a five-point wind.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Wexford started the second half much better, pushing up on the Dublin puck-out and chipping away at the lead through Chin\u2019s free-taking. But again they were careless at the back and it needed another brilliant Fanning save, this time from John Hetherton, to keep them breathing. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Burke nailed the 65 again though and speared free after free into the wind to keep Dublin out of reach. It was a stunning display of shooting from the Na Fianna man, who only had three misses from 17 shots all day.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"2026 Leinster GAA Hurling Senior Championship Round 3, Chadwicks Wexford Park, Wexford 9\/5\/2026&#10;Wexford vs Dublin&#10;Conor Burke of Dublin is tackled by Diarmuid O'Leary of Wexford&#10;Mandatory Credit &#xA9;INPHO\/James Lawlor\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/INKA4B2BVUG26TBYYE2XQJTCKU.jpg\"   width=\"800\" height=\"533\"\/>2026 Leinster GAA Hurling Senior Championship Round 3, Chadwicks Wexford Park, Wexford 9\/5\/2026<br \/>\nWexford vs Dublin<br \/>\nConor Burke of Dublin is tackled by Diarmuid O&#8217;Leary of Wexford<br \/>\nMandatory Credit \u00a9INPHO\/James Lawlor <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cListen, Donal\u2019s fantastic,\u201d said Niall \u00d3 Ceallach\u00e1in afterwards. \u201cA man that you just trust all the time for that. Particularly in a second half like that where you\u2019re up against it, just to know that you have a 90, 95 per cent freetaker, when the ball\u2019s put down it\u2019s going over the bar is massive. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cThose scores, they might look routine. They\u2019re not. They\u2019re the lifeblood in a second half like that when you just have to stop their momentum and keep the scoreboard ticking over. It\u2019s massive and he was excellent today.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Still, Wexford had their chances. They just didn\u2019t take enough of them. With the wind at their backs in the second half, they pucked nine pretty shoddy wides that entirely sucked the air out of the afternoon. They went 15 minutes in the second half without scoring, leaving them 2-20 to 0-15 behind at the clock turned 60 minutes. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">It left them with far too much to do. Jack O\u2019Connor came off the bench to score the point of the day and Chin kept his end up with the frees. But Dublin were never too bothered and when Burke curled one glorious final point in on the breeze in injury-time, the day was done.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">WEXFORD: M Fanning; D Carley, L Ryan, S Donoghue (0-1); D Reck, R Lawlor, C Foley; D O\u2019Leary, C Hearne (0-1); R Banville (0-2), S Roche (0-1), C Byrne; K Foley (0-1), L Chin (0-14, 12f), D Codd (0-1). Subs: J Byrne for Codd (48 mins), J O\u2019Connor (0-1) for Byrne (57), E Wickham for Donoghue (63).<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">DUBLIN: E Gibbons; L Rushe, P Smyth, E O\u2019Donnell; C Burke (0-1), C Crummey, P Doyle; B Hayes (0-2), C Donoghue; F Whitely, D Burke (0-14, 7f, 3\u203265), D Power; D Purcell (1-0), J Hetherton (0-1), C O\u2019Sullivan (1-3). Subs: C McHugh for O\u2019Donnell (38 mins), C O\u2019Riain for Power (49), R Hayes for Purcell (61), C Groarke for Hetherton (72), O Gaffney for Whitely (75).<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Referee: S Hynes (Galway).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leinster SHC: Wexford 0-22 Dublin 2-21 An honest day\u2019s work for Dublin, who led pretty much entirely from&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":441302,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2179,42,92418,6398,43,40,38,41,39,14612],"class_list":["post-441301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-dublin-gaa","tag-headlines","tag-hurling-championship","tag-match-report","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-wexford-gaa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441301","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=441301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441301\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/441302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=441301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=441301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=441301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}