Wexford produced a Houdini act to beat Louth by 1-15 to 2-11 at Enniscorthy.

With a provincial quarter-final place up for grabs in this loser's group, round two match at Bellefield, the home team built on their win over Carlow last week with another fantastic triumph tonight to progress to the last eight.

The victors were stunned when Cian Doyle's goal gave the visitors a three-point lead with four minutes remaining but they replied in style with an Eoin Roche major before Jamie Carty clinched the win.

Louth led by two points at the break, 0-7 to 0-5, and the lead could have been greater had not a few presentable goal-scoring opportunities gone astray.

The Model County started brightly and roared into a 0-3 to 0-1 lead - with Niall Hughes, Cormac O'Rourke and Donal Shanley on target - but Louth never lost their composure and had points from Dara Hamill, Cian Doyle (his second) and Darragh Lafferty as they moved ahead by the minimum, 0-4 to 0-3.

Doyle was proving to be a real thorn in the Wexford side and he twice came close to finding the net, with one shot crashing back unluckily off the underside of the crossbar.

The next four points were shared - with Shanley and Paudie Barrden pointing for the Slaneysiders before Hamill and Laverty replied - to leave the visitors still leading by one, 0-6 to 0-5, with five minutes left in the first half.

Doyle added another Louth point with the last kick of the first half, to double the away side's advantage at the short whistle.

Josh Arrowsmith clipped over a brace of points for Louth upon the restart but Wexford then came with three unanswered scores to close the gap to one.

However, Clan na Gael's Robbie Curran momentarily put paid to that revival when he drilled a 39th-minute shot low to the back of the net - 1-9 to 0-8.

Shanley pulled back a Wexford free to keep things interesting and the same player then added a point from play - as did Barden - to set up a grandstand finish, with just a point between the sides early in the fourth quarter.

Wayne Campbell clipped over a 13-metre free in the 49th minute to double the gap and Doyle added another after good work by Dean Maguire - 1-11 to 0-11 with ten minutes left.

Centre forward Jamie Carty replied with an excellent Wexford point and Shanley then tapped over a 52nd-minute free after Eoghan Lafferty was penalised.

Full forward Barden tied the scores up again but - amazingly - with four minutes to go - O'Connells clubman Doyle hammered the ball to the top corner of the net to make it 2-11 to 0-14.

Corner forward Eoin Roche replied immediately with a three-pointer for the never-say-die Model County and Carty then dropped over a winning Wexford point much to the obvious delight of the home crowd, 1-15 to 2-11 after 58 minutes.

That was the final score as Wexford claimed a dramatic win.

Wexford - D Cloke; D Redmond, J Rossiter, J Reville; N Rossiter, G Staples, J McDonnell; N Hughes 0-1, T Byrne; B Cowman, J Carty 0-2, D Shanley 0-6; E Roche 1-0, P Barden 0-4, C O'Rourke 0-1. Subs: C Farrell 0-1 for O'Rourke, C Nolan for Byrne.

Louth - N McArdle; R Trainor, C Lenihan, E Duffy; S McConnell, E Lafferty , D Lynch; W Campbell 0-1, J Hanna; D Hamill 0-2, R Curran 1-0, C O'Connor; J Arrowsmith 0-2, C Doyle 1-4, D Lafferty 0-2. Subs: D Maguire for O'Connor, R Burns for D Lafferty, C Carthy for Hamill.

Ref - D Hughes (Carlow). Tweet

Most Read Stories