Galway smash six goals past Antrim as late Chin goal rescues crucial Wexford win

• Galway 6-27 Antrim 1-14
• Wexford 2-17 Offaly 1-17

THERE WERE WINS for Galway and Wexford today in the Leinster SHC series.

Galway fired 6-27 past Antrim as they eased to their third win of the competition on the bounce.

The Tribesmen sauntered to a 28-point victory in sunny Salthill, 6-27 to 1-14 the final scoreline.

Antrim played much of the game with 14 players after Declan McCloskey was shown a straight red card for an off the ball incident before half time, but it was generally one-way traffic throughout.

Brian Concannon, Anthony Burns (two each), Declan McLaughlin and Kevin Cooney scored the Galway goals, while Conor Cooney top-scored with 0-11 (9 frees) and Tom Monaghan hit six points from play.

The hosts weren’t at full strength, opting to rest a number of key players, and led 2-12 to 0-8 against the wind when McCloskey was given his marching orders before the break.

They turned the screw thereafter, Antrim’s only goal coming late on through Niall McGarrell as Joseph McLaughlin 0-7 (6 frees) led their scoring charge in the absence of the suspended James McNaughton.

Davy Fitzgerald’s side now bid to retain their Liam MacCarthy Cup status in next weekend’s final round against Offaly, while Galway travel to Parnell Park to face Dublin.

Meanwhile, Offaly made Wexford sweat for their win and it took a late Lee Chin goal to secure the result for Keith Rossiter’s side at home. It’s a crucial second victory of the campaign for Wexford to ease off relegation worries and keep their slim hopes of continuing in the championship alive.

Last year’s Joe McDonagh cup champions Offaly are now in a straight shootout with Antrim for survival in the Liam MacCarthy competition next weekend.

It was Offaly who made the brighter start this evening, running up a 1-2 to 0-0 lead in the opening 10 minutes after Brian Duignan found the net before going to finish the game with 1-9 to his credit.

Chin got Wexford off the mark with a point before Kevin Foley supplied their first goal of the evening to leave two between them. Offaly recovered and continued to control proceedings in the second half as Killian Sampson hit a brace of points to keep his side 1-7 to 1-2 in front after 25 minutes.

Offaly had a four-point advantage at half-time but Wexford made an encouraging start to the second half by hitting six of the first eight points. A Jack O’Connor score brought the sides back level on 1-12 apiece after 51 minutes.

The sides continued to trade scores in a tense run to the finish before Chin’s goal in the 72nd minute ultimately decided the tie along with an injury-time point from Conor McDonald.

Additional reporting by Sinéad Farrell

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