Wexford needed extra time to see off the challenge of Wicklow by 1-15 to 0-17 at Enniscorthy.

Substitute Paudi Kelly proved to be the hero for the home side as his goal with six minutes remaining in the second period of extra time, proved to be the difference.

The standard of football produced by both sides will have pleased their managers as neither team looked as if they wanted to lose.

Shane Roche, Kevin O'Grady, James Holmes and Rory Quinlivan all scored for the home side in the first half, but Wicklow held a three-point advantage at the interval, 0-7 to 0-4.

The Model County had to work hard in the second half and eventually drew level by the 50th minute when the excellent Roche pointed a free.

Wicklow kept battling away and points from Austin O'Malley, and Sean Furlong were cancelled out as they were level at 0-11 each by the end of normal time.

The sides were once again level at the end of half time in extra time (0-14 each), but Kelly's goaled paved the way for Wicklow as they go on to meet Laois in the final. Both sides were reduced to 14-men as Wicklow's Nicky Mernagh and Wexford's Niall Murphy were sent off for separate incidents late on.

Wexford: A Masterson; N Murphy, G Molloy, B Mulligan; A Flynn, B Malone (0-1), A Doyle; D Waters, R Quinlivan (0-1); B Brosnan (0-1f), E Bradley, J Holmes (0-2); K O'Grady (0-1), S Roche (0-5 3f), P Byrne (0-2). Subs: L Chin for Doyle; R Barry (0-2) for O'Grady; P Kelly (1-0) for Bradley; D Murphy for Flynn; A Shore for Quinlivan; C Lyng for Roche.

Wicklow: J Flynn; C Hyland, N Gaffney, C Rossiter; B Murphy, R Finn, A Byrne; J Stafford (0-1), A Merriman; J Kelly (0-1), A O'Malley (0-3), N Mernagh (0-1); S Furlong (0-4 1f), P Burke, F Clune (0-4 2f) . Subs: D Healy for Merriman; T Hannon (0-1f) for Clune; S Mann for Rossiter; L Glynn (0-2 1f) for Kelly; P Dalton for Hyland; P Cronin for Furlong; T Kelly for O'Malley.

Ref: J Hickey (Carlow). Tweet

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