Kildare concede three goals as O'Byrne cup campaign ends at the hands of Wexford

Dioralyte O'Byrne Cup 2024

Wexford 3-9

Kildare 0-14

Kildare exited the Dioralyte O’Byrne Cup at the quarter final stage as a much-changed line-up shipped three goals to a lively Wexford outfit in Chadwick’s Wexford Park on Saturday.

Manager Glenn Ryan made ten changes from the win over Carlow and perhaps that had an impact.
It took eight minutes for the first score to be registered. Niall Kelly got Kildare off the mark with a neat turn and finish from

Sam McCormack’s long ball and the Clane debutant turned finisher with a second immediately from the restart.
Shane Pettit replied with Wexford’s opening score before a close-range free from Jimmy Hyland.

Attacking wing back Páraic Hughes pulled one back for the home side but on sixteen minutes Niall Kelly fed Hyland inside for his second point to put Kildare 0-4 to 0-2 ahead.

A minute later, Ryan must have been aghast at defending that allowed Cian Hughes to wriggle in from the left corner, evading three defenders and despite dropping the ball having time to slip a ground shot past Cordonnier for the opening goal.
Kildare’s response saw the Kelly brothers Barry and Niall combining for the latter to cut in from the left corner and angle over a trademark point that leveled matters at 1-2 to 0-5. But Mark Rossiter replied for Wexford with a mark.

Towards half-time Kildare enjoyed a period of dominance, but three goal chances went abegging. First the workaholic Barry Kelly slalomed through but elected to fist and it dropped harmlessly and illegally into the goal. Then Jack Sargent’s close range effort was saved by ‘keeper Anto Larkin with Aaron Masterson at least pointing from the rebound. But the most glaring miss fell to full back and captain Mick O’Grady who was put through by Sargent but slid his shot wide to the left.

Meanwhile Páraic Hughes had registered his second point for Wexford but on the stroke of half-time Hyland leveled matters at 1-4 to 0-7 and Kildare must have felt reasonably optimistic.

Cian Hughes put Wexford ahead with a mark on the restart before two of Kildare’s half-time subs carved them open for another goal chance, Daniel Flynn racing through from 40 metres to set up Paddy Woodgate. When the Raheens man caught the ball rather than palming to an empty net, Kevin O’Grady got back to deflect his shot out for a 45 which Cordonnier expertly converted.

Kildare didn’t score again for 15 minutes, with the home side registering 1-3 without reply to take control. An O’Grady pass went astray in the Wexford half to set up a breakaway which Conor Kinsella finished off and on 50 minutes Kildare were undone again.

O’Grady made ground down the right and his inside pass found Dean O’Toole free, the corner-forward hand-
passing over the stranded Cordonnier for Ben Brosnan to apply the finish to the net.

O’Grady and Tom Byrne added confident points to make it 2-8 to 0-8 before Flynn ended Kildare’s barren spell with a fine score. Brosnan responded in kind from a free, though.

Flynn was the one bright spot from Kildare’s second half, and he found the range again with Kevin Feely repeating the dose a minute later and when Callum Bolton converted a superb mark with eleven minutes remaining there was only a goal between them. But Wexford pierced the Lilywhite defence with a lightening break from defence led by Darragh Lyons and Cian Hughes turned inside Sargent to set up Páraic Hughes for their third goal eight minutes from the end.
Late points from Flynn and Woodgate were mere consolation scores.

Scorers: Wexford: Páraic Hughes 1-2, Cian Hughes 1-1 (1 mark), Ben Brosnan 1-1 (1 free), Tom Byrne 0-1, Shane Pettit 0-1, Mark Rossiter 0-1 (m), Kevin O’Grady 0-1, Conor Kinsella 0-1.

Kildare: Jimmy Hyland 0-3 (1 free), Daniel Flynn 0-3, Niall Kelly 0-2, Sam McCormack 0-1, Aaron Masterson 0-1, Didier Cordonnier 0-1 (’45), Kevin Feely 0-1, Callum Bolton 0-1 (mark), Paddy Woodgate 0-1.

KILDARE: Didier Cordonnier; Harry O’Neill, Mick O’Grady, Ryan Burke; Killian Galligan, Jack Sargent, Brian Byrne; Brendan Gibbons, Aaron Masterson; Callum Bolton, Sam McCormack, Barry Kelly; Niall Kelly, Shane Farrell, Jimmy Hyland. Subs: Daniel Flynn for Niall Kelly, Paddy Woodgate for Hyland, Alex Beirne for Burke (all half-time), Kevin Feely for Byrne (47 minutes), Kevin O’Callaghan for Galligan (66 minutes).

WEXFORD: Anto Larkin; Conor Kelly, Gavin Sheehan, Darragh Lyons; Dylan Furlong, Glen Malone, Páraic Hughes; Liam Coleman, John Roche; Tom Byrne, Shane Pettit, Richie Waters; Dean O’Toole, Mark Rossiter, Cian Hughes. Subs: Ben Brosnan for Pettit (23 minutes), Rory Tubritt for Larkin, Conor Kinsella for Rossiter, Niall Hughes for Waters, Kevin O’Grady for Roche (all half-time), Jonathan Bealin for Malone (52 minutes), Graeme Cullen for O’Toole (60 minutes), Conor Carty for Kelly (66 minutes), Cathal Walsh for Páraic Hughes (69 minutes).

REFEREE: Seamus Farrelly, Dublin.