AS expected, Laois took care of business against Waterford yesterday afternoon, while Leitrim will join the O’Moore county in next Saturday evening’s Division Four final at Croke Park after they got the home win they needed against Tipperary.
The hard luck story in the Division was Wexford, who lost to Leitrim thanks to a controversial late penalty at Carrick-on-Shannon last month, and now miss out on promotion as Leitrim finish ahead of them by way of the head-to-head result.
Wexford could only take care of their own business and they did that very effectively with a 2-18 to 1-9 win over Longford at Chadwicks Wexford Park.
After scoring the first four points in-a-row, Wexford were rocked when 1-1 from Daniel Mimnagh and a Mark Hughes point undid all their good work by the midway point in the first half.
The second quarter was one-way traffic, however, with Wexford rattling off 2-5 unanswered before a free from Hughes stemmed the bleeding before half-time. Mark Rossiter found the net from the penalty spot with Glen Malone adding the second major.
Cathal McCabe found the net to give Longford a lifeline after half-time but Ben Brosnan, making a record 175th appearance for Wexford, steadied the ship with two frees, on the way to a 2-18 to 2-9 home win.
Wexford also needed a favour from Tipperary in Carrick-on-Shannon, and the Premier county did all they could to keep Leitrim honest in a 0-15 to 0-9 defeat.
They had five different scorers from play, including goalkeeper Evan Comerford, going into first-half stoppage-time when Darragh Rooney made it 0-7 to 0-6 to the home side at the break.
Ryan O’Rourke kicked two of his three points from play to put Leitrim on the front foot after half-time and they never looked back from there. Rooney struck 0-9 in total in a six-point9 win for Andy Moran’s troops.
Wexford had one more survival hope, which rested on their neighbours Waterford pulling off a shock win against Laois at Carriganore.
Justin McNulty’s side were in absolutely no mood to let that dream get off the ground, and they ran riot in the opening 20 minutes en route to a 5-19 to 0-9 win.
Evan O’Carroll, Mark Barry (twice) and Paul Kingston all hit the Waterford net to make it 4-8 to no-score at that stage and, while they eased off considerably after that, substitute Rioghan Murphy added his name to the goalscorers in a 25-point win.
The other game of the day was at Netwatch Cullen Park, where Colm Hilton found the net for Carlow in a 1-17 to 1-10 win over London.
