Late Wexford surge knocks Laois minor hurlers out of Leinster Championship

The Laois minor hurling team have been knocked out of this year's Leinster Championship after Wexford scored six of the last seven points in Laois Hire O'Moore Park on Saturday afternoon.

Laois had gone ahead with 10 minutes to go, but Wexford finished the stronger of the two teams to seal their spot in a Leinster semi-final.

Wexford 0-22

Laois 1-15

Eoin Delaney sprang Laois into life in the opening minute as he took the ball on his hurl and ran from the stand to the terrace side before splitting the posts. Eoin Kinsella replied a minute later for the away side. Tom Óg Phelan and Laois captain Donnacha Carroll pushed Laois two points in front, 0-3 to 0-1, after 5 minutes. Odhran Cuddy in the Laois goal made a superb save from Jack Sheridan before the latter slotted the rebound between the posts. Sean O'Brien, Wexford's top scorer opened his account to see the sides level again.

Conor Headen opened his account with a point, which could have easily been a goal, but his shot went over the crossbar instead of under it. Headen did manage to get his goal three minutes later. He was fouled underneath the stand with Phelan taking the resulting free. Phelan's effort dropped short, and Headen was on hand to kick the ball into the back of the Wexford net. O'Brien replied with a free and a 65' for The Yellowbellies. Phelan raised a second white flag as Laois led by that Headen goal, but Wexford eradicated that with three points in two minutes. Darragh Ryan and two from O'Brien left the scores at 1-5 to 0-8 after 20 minutes.

Phelan pushed Laois in front yet again with another free. Laois goalkeeper Cuddy pulled off another splendid save from Rhys Wickham to deny Wexford a goal. Wexford pushed on from here and went ahead for the first time when O'Brien pointed two frees with a Jamie Kenney point sandwiched in between. The sides would go into the dressing rooms all square as Delaney and Phelan scored a point each before the break, 1-8 to 0-11.

The second-half began with O'Brien and Phelan trading frees before Kennedy and O'Brien pointed to put Wexford two points in front. The next four points were swapped as Delaney took his tally to four while O'Brien and Kinsella got a point each for Wexford. Laois took over for the next five minutes and scored three points to go one up with 10 minutes to play, courtesy of three frees, two from Phelan and a long-range placed ball from Tony Mahony. 

Wexford wouldn't back down as they went from being a point down to three points up. Jamie Downey and Eoghan Whelan got a point each from play, with O'Brien putting two frees between the posts. LJ Cuddy got a point back for Laois, but it was a goal they needed, which they never got. Laurence Cloke and Joey Tobin pointed off the bench for Wexford as they left Portlaoise with a four-point victory.