The shot was eyeball high and to the corner, a blurred white bullet. Thus, Damien Fitzhenry, Wexford's dead-eyed goalkeeper eliminated Limerick from the Guinness All-Ireland hurling quarter-finals and the coming young Munster side were left to stomach the old truism.

Goals are the medium.

Goals win games.

Wexford learned it as recently as three weeks ago. Goals kill a team. Limerick hurled awfully well on a balmy, breathless afternoon that bade them out of the championship. Not with the same collective force as founded their re-emergence in the early summer raids down in Cork, but with abundant grit and style all the same.

They met a Wexford team in perfect pitch, with the remaining hurlers from that comet summer in 1996 performing at a peak and lifting the fired-up newcomers from the county's under-age scene. In tempo and attitude, they looked a remarkably different force than that which so ponderously flailed and stumbled against Kilkenny's lofty example in the miserable Leinster final. If this was a last throw, then it was gloriously bold.

From Rory McCarthy's first-minute goal, when he batted first time on a looping cross from Michael Jordan, the Wexford mindset was apparent. They tore into a 1-2 lead before Limerick, hurling in Croke Park for the first time in five years, regained serenity enough to implement their own design on the proceedings.

Limerick's first goal - scored by Barry Foley but the source of an exhilarating solo run and perfect hand-pass from Paul O'Grady after 15 minutes - set up precisely the type of matinee drama that this hurling season so desperately required. So fitting of Wexford's unreadable nature to follow the flattest turn of the summer with the most memorable.

It was not the tidiest of matches but one that existed on the wilder edges of passion. A number of times the athletes became absorbed with each other as the theatre grew evermore tense. With the lead see-sawing and a cliff-hanger denouement an increasing likelihood, several players from both sides seemed magnified in stature.

Both full backs were immense. TJ Ryan trekked down endless ball as well as marshalling the fiery young Nicky Lambert, who prowled around the small square for most of the afternoon. Darragh Ryan, his opposite number, was brilliant and direct. It was his late, well-struck clearance that initiated the move that led to Wexford's survival. With his team down 3-10 to 2-15, Ryan broke clear and delivered a deep ball which Garry Laffan touched on to Rory McCarthy. The St Martin's man turned in a flash and was hauled down by Clem Smith. Fitzhenry, unruffled through the bedlam, did the rest.

The Wexford 'keepers haul of two goals will long be remembered. A lesser man than Fitzhenry might not have stayed the course to nail them because immediately prior to his first - a penalty on 31 minutes - he made a big mistake. Fielding a dropping shot from Paul O'Grady, Fitzhenry opted to leave his line only to find his telegraphed clearance blocked by Brian Begley. The sliothar broke to Barry Foley, who hammered into the exposed net.

From the puck-out, Larry Murphy bore down on Limerick and fed a pass to the waiting Lambert. Limerick's last line arrived and seemed to usher the ball fairly across the end line before the Wexford forward was upended, but a penalty was awarded.

The decision seemed harsh on Limerick and they might have felt further aggrieved six minutes later when they were penalised 20 yards from their own goal for a dubious indiscretion. Paul Codd took a gamble and the net shook and Wexford went in 3-6 to 2-5 up at the break.

It was not surprising that, despite those punches, Limerick returned after the half-time repairs and constructed a position from which they looked poised to go through. Ciarβn Carey became a central influence, cleaning up around the middle of the stadium, floating a point to put his side within one after 46 minutes. Mark Foley's reading of the game was masterful, and even though Stephen McDonagh endured early torture at the hands of Mitch Jordan, he too had a significant say.

With the match - the season - teetering in the last quarter, the scores thinned out. Limerick had the look of victors about them as Wexford's wide total began to mount, but somehow they found means of survival.

Garry Laffan and Larry Murphy both landed crucial points in the suffocating last 20 minutes, when Wexford's imagination was drying up. Limerick, meantime, were coming alive. After 51 minutes, Brian Geary threaded a ball that was touched by Begley and Owen O'Neill before SeβO'Connor netted, but the referee called them back for a tug on Begley's jersey.

The resultant point was a measly return for a beautifully conceived play. Still, they looked the more persuasive. Paul O'Grady balanced errant first-half free-taking with a graceful point after 65 minutes that put them at 2-14 to 3-10 and then, after Larry Murphy whistled inches wide, the lanky Brian Begley galloped into a clearing from the puck-out and arced a easy, assured point for Limerick. It was a score that was dripping with the resilience Limerick have been hurting teams with all summer and ought to have wrapped the day up. But goals win games and Wexford had the nose for them yesterday.

Not for a long time has the front unit looked as sharp and with McCarthy's lightning turn wheeled Wexford's season. It was a savagely hurtful way for Limerick to exit.

Luck gave them nothing.

They were granted those fretful last seconds with which to manage an equaliser but Larry O'Gorman, with a block down, snuffed out the half-chance that fell to Paul O'Grady. That was that.

A wonderful response, then, from Wexford, who know too well what it is to be wiped by late goals. Afterwards, manager Tom Dempsey stopped to embrace a man who made his way down from the stands.

It was Kilkenny's manager, Brian Cody, flushed and happy on a day of revival for the Leinster game.