Leinster SHC Quarter-Final

Laois v Wexford, O'Moore Park, 2pm

It’s been a brilliant year so far for Wexford, but they would be well advised not to take the Laois challenge lightly going into Sunday’s Leinster SHC Quarter-Final.

The Midlanders have three championship wins under their belts already after topping the Round Robin group and are coming into this game with plenty of confidence and momentum.

Wexford, on the other hand, haven’t hurled since the League semi-final against Tipperary six weeks ago, so won’t have the same match-sharpness.

You’d wonder too whether suspended manager Davy Fitzgerald’s enforced absence from training sessions will have disrupted their preparation, but Lee Chin was adamant this week it hasn’t.

He also made it very clear that Wexford were coming into this game with their eyes very much open, and are well aware of the threat that Laois pose.

Chin will have a big role to play in terms of nullifying that threat, because he’ll be in direct competition with free-scoring Laois midfielders Ross King and Paddy Purcell.

The duo have hit a combined 4-14 from play in their last two matches and Chin appreciates they’ll take a lot of watching.

“Yeah, I suppose we've obviously noted over the last few games that they've been going very well, himself (Purcell) and Ross King,” said Chin this week.

“Obviously we'd be keeping an eye out for those two, we've been hearing about their success over the last number of weeks in the round robin and how successful they've been individually so we know it's going to be a driving force for them."

There wasn’t much between the teams when they met in the League – Wexford won by four points after a late surge that saw them hit the last three scores of the game – though the fact that Fitzgerald's team had already qualified for the quarter-finals may have dulled their edge.

Laois have improved a lot since that League game, but their chances of pulling off a shock on Sunday have reduced by injuries to a number of players.

Paddy Whelan (hamstring), Ryan Mullaney (shoulder), and Eanna Lyons (finger) are all ruled out, and it’s also seems unlikely that Cahir Healy will recover in time from the hamstring injury he sustained in the Round Robin against Meath.

Wexford have their own injury issues too, though. Damien Reck (ankle) is definitely ruled out, and there are doubts a too over Willie Devereux (hamstring), Shaun Murphy (sternum), and Mark Fanning (finger).

Wexford manager Davy Fitzgerald said his team were in bonus territory after winning promotion to Division 1A of the Allianz Hurling League, but that’s not quite true.

It would be a mini-disaster were they to lose this match and miss out on the opportunity of hosting Kilkenny at Wexford Park in a Leinster semi-final.

That will be bring its own pressure against a sharp looking Laois team who will relish the opportunity to spoil the Wexford party.

Wexford should win this match if they hurl to their full potential, but it’s not a foregone conclusion by any means.

“In all my time with Wexford in the national league we've played Laois and we've beaten them but when it comes to Championship you just don't know what's going to happen,” said Chin.

“But any Championship game that we go out in, we go out with the expectation of winning.

“Nobody goes out in the Championship with the intention of getting beaten. It's definitely not what we're intending on doing at the weekend, we're going out with the attitude of winning.”

LAOIS: Enda Rowland; Lee Cleere, Leigh Bergin, Dwane Palmer; Ciaran Collier, Cha Dwyer, Matthew Whelan; Ross King, Patrick Purcell; Sean Downey, John Lennon, Willie Dunphy; Aaron Dunphy, Neil Foyle, Stephen Maher.

---