GALWAY boss Micheál Donoghue was left singing the praises of his bench as the Tribesmen delivered a third straight Allianz Hurling League Division 1A victory after Saturday’s trip to Chadwicks Wexford Park. While having to fend off a determined late Wexford rally, Galway had hit the locals hard midway through the second-half to set up the result. Indeed, substitute Conor Cooney rifled 1-2 from placed-balls, including a penalty earned by namesake and fellow sub Kevin, as Galway transformed a 1-11 to 1-10 deficit into a decisive 2-16 to 1-13 lead on 56 minutes. And manager Donoghue was chuffed with his subs, who combined for 1-6, as he reflected: “You have to give a lot of credit and respect to Wexford. "They were never going to die. They got some scores from frees and the crowd got behind them. “But I thought our lads showed a much better performance in the second-half and were really resilient, and importantly we got a big impact from the bench too.” Galway dipped after bursting 0-3 to no-score ahead, with David Burke scoring on his seasonal debut. Seamus Casey had a mixed evening on placed-balls for Wexford in the absence of Cian Byrne, who failed to have his dismissal lifted from the victory over Clare. But Casey had six first-half scores – four frees and two ‘65s – to lift Wexford into a 0-10 to 0-9 lead before Galway stung them with an injury-time goal to steal a 1-9 to 0-10 interval advantage. Wexford, battling against relegation, were lifted when Rory O’Connor punished a short Galway puck-out to stick a 38th minute goal and help transform matters by 1-11 to 1-10. But Galway, with Gavin Lee doing an outstanding job on Lee Chin, then sank their claws in, with Conor Cooney’s penalty goal sending them 2-16 to 1-13 ahead. Wexford responded with a stirring revival, the locals amongst the 4,658 crowd growing increasingly in voice as five Chin frees had Keith Rossiter’s men within 2-19 to 1-20 when they went close to stealing victory five minutes into added-time. But ‘keeper Mark Fanning’s drive from a free was thwarted as Galway emerged with their fortunes soaring, leaving Wexford supremo Rossiter to consider his side’s plight. “Am I talking about relegation now? I probably am now yeah. I wasn’t up to tonight because I thought it was still in our own hands and I thought we could have won tonigh. “But, as I said, we beat ourselves with the wides we had,” he says, with Wexford hitting 14 of the game’s 19 wides. “I’ll have to look at relegation now and see what the lie of the land is. But when you are depending on other results, it’s never a good way to be.” Wexford 1-20 - 2-19 Galway Galway: D Fahy; J Grealish, F Burke, D Morrissey 0-1; P Mannion, G Lee, M Garvey 0-5, 3f; C Fahy (0-1), D Burke 0-2; B Concannon, T Monaghan 0-1, T Killeen 0-2, 2f; D McLoughlin, C Whelan, A Burns 1-1.Subs: K Cooney 0-2 for McLoughlin (HT), C Cooney 1-2, 0-2f, 1-0pen for Concannon (47), C Molloy 0-1 for Burns (59), S Linnane 0-1 for D. Burke (60). Wexford: M Fanning; E Ryan, D Reck, S Donohoe; C Foley 0-1, R Lawlor 0-1, C McGuckin; C Hearne 0-1, C Dunbar 0-1; J Redmond, L Chin 0-5, 5f, J O’Connor 0-1; K Foley, R O’Connor 1-2, S Casey 0-7, 5f, 2 ‘65s.Subs: S Reck (0-1) for D Reck, inj (35+3), S Roche for Redmond (HT), N Murphy for Ryan (HT), T Kinsella for Casey (60), M Dwyer for Dunbar (66). Referee: S Stack (Dublin