Leinster Senior Hurling Championship

Dublin 1-22 Wexford 0-23

By Paul Keane at Croke Park

Cian O'Sullivan's first-half goal ultimately separated the teams but, not for the first time, inspirational attacker Donal Burke will go down as Dublin's gamebreaker in a highly significant Leinster SHC encounter. 

A whopping 13 points from the Na Fianna man included two deep into stoppage time which proved to be the insurance scores in a nail biting finale.

The battling win gives Dublin a great chance of locking down at least third position in the provincial table ahead of remaining ties against Kilkenny, away, and Galway, back at Croke Park on May 28.

If that is how things pan out, and if Dublin advance to the All-Ireland series having missed out last year, then Wexford will kick themselves because this game was there for the taking for Darragh Egan's side.

They never actually led but were neck and neck with Dublin throughout, drawing level in the 74th minute after a strong finale.

They will rue the 19 wides they blasted on the evening with 11 of those coming in the second-half.

All is not lost for Wexford though as they still have to play Westmeath and Kilkenny and back to back wins could yet secure them a place in the All-Ireland series.

Alex Considine's return was the only change to the Dublin team that comfortably defeated Westmeath at Parnell Park last weekend.

Paul Crummey was the attacker to lose out though the Lucan Sarsfields man came on after just eight minutes for the injured Ronan Hayes who went off with a damaged hamstring.

Crummey got on the scoresheet late in the opening half too as Dublin hit the interval with a narrow 1-9 to 0-10 lead in front of a crowd of 9,125.

O'Sullivan's 19th minute goal was the difference at that stage, the St Brigid's man rising highest amongst a group of players at the Davin End and redirecting Donal Burke's long delivery to the net.

Dublin led from the opening score of the game, a Paddy Doyle point in the first minute, until early in the second-half but were never out of the woods in a tit-for-tat scoring encounter.

They raced into an early 0-4 to 0-1 lead but a series of Wexford picked points, mainly from captain Lee Chin, kept them well in contention.

A terrific Rory O'Connor point for Wexford in the 17th minute left just a point between them, 0-6 to 0-5.

O'Sullivan's goal arrived shortly after and gave Dublin a vital buffer though Wexford closed out the half with scores from Richie Lawlor and Jack O'Connor to keep it interesting.

Egan's visitors set up in counter-attacking mode with Kevin Foley acting as their seventh defender. Cathal Dunbar, wearing number 15, dropped deep to midfield alongside Richie Lawlor, leaving the Slaneysiders with a two-man full-forward line.

Dublin, meanwhile, were left with Conor Burke as their spare defender.

Wexford returned for the second-half with more energy and attacking gusto, reeling off the first three points through Chin and Simon Donohoe.

Dublin then hit the afterburners again and approaching the hour mark they had opened up a sizeable five-point lead, 1-18 to 0-16.

Mark Grogan, former Cork senior Chris O'Leary and sub Sean Currie were among the Dublin scorers.

But with Rory O'Connor coming into the game strongly for Wexford and McDonald proving a handful after coming on, the 2019 provincial winners wiped out the deficit deep into stoppage time.

It looked as if Wexford's momentum might just swing it for them but those two late Burke points did the trick for Dublin.

Scorers for Dublin: Donal Burke 0-13 (0-10f), Cian O'Sullivan 1-1, Paul Crummey 0-2, Paddy Doyle 0-1, Danny Sutcliffe 0-1, Chris O'Leary 0-1, Mark Grogan 0-1, Conor Burke 0-1, Sean Currie 0-1.

Scorers for Wexford: Lee Chin 0-8 (0-6f), Rory O'Connor 0-5 (0-3f), Cathal Dunbar 0-2, Oisin Foley 0-2, Conor McDonald 0-2, Conor Devitt 0-1, Richie Lawlor 0-1, Jack O'Connor 0-1, Simon Donohoe 0-1.

Dublin: Sean Brennan; Eoghan O'Donnell, Paddy Smyth; Conor Burke; Conor Donohoe, Paddy Doyle, Daire Gray; Mark Grogan, Chris O'Leary; Danny Sutcliffe, Donal Burke, Cian Boland; Cian O'Sullivan, Alex Considine, Ronan Hayes.

Subs: Paul Crummey for Hayes 8, Sean Currie for Considine 51, Darragh Power for Grogan 59, Fergal Whitely for Boland 64, Dara Purcell for O'Sullivan 74.

Wexford: James Lawlor; Simon Donohoe, Liam Ryan, Shane Reck; Kevin Foley; Conor Devitt, Matthew O'Hanlon, Damien Reck; Cathal Dunbar, Richie Lawlor; Jack O'Connor, Lee Chin, Oisin Foley; Liam Og McGovern, Rory O'Connor.

Subs: Joe O'Connor for D Reck 42, Conor McDonald for R Lawlor 44, Mikie Dwyer for J O'Connor 49, Ian Carty for Ryan 55, Ross Banville for Dunbar 71.

Referee: Thomas Walsh (Waterford).