Waterford 1-5; Clare 1-15
Waterford's Ronan Cahill gets away from Clare's Sean Brennan
The Waterford players and mentors will be far from happy with the second half performance against Clare at Fraher Field on Wednesday last.
While the home side got off to a poor start, going a point behind after less than a minute’s play and trailing five points to one after 23 minutes, they managed to go in at the break a point up and in truth could have been further ahead had it not for poor shooting and decision-making.
Brian O’Halloran cancelled out Cathal McInerney’s early point on five minutes, but McInerney added three further points inside a 13-minute spell and a further score from Stephen Tierney with seven minutes of the opening half remaining, had the Banner side four points up.
Waterford hit a purple patch in the four minutes before the break. Paul Whyte pointed a 45 which was followed up with a well-taken goal from Kenny Moore after good work out the field by Kenny Murphy.
Brian Nolan put Waterford in front for the first time just before the short whistle following a good movement down the right hand side.
Clare manager Colin Collins made two changes at the interval – Darragh Sexton replacing Eamon Malone and the influential Seamus Lynch coming on for Aidan Malone – and, after Keith O’Connor and Kenny Moore exchanged points, the Bannermen took control.
Lynch was outstanding, kicking five points, with Lynch, McInerney and Tierney also raising white flags. Conor Ryan goaled midway through the second 30 minutes and that was effectively that.
For Waterford the O’Halloran cousins, Brian Nolan, Kenny Murphy and Kenny Murphy tried hard, while losing Shane Leahy – who was removed from the field injured before the break and who received medical treatment from ambulance personnel – was a huge loss.
Clare had several impressive players, particularly six-point McInerney, who received a round of applause from the sizeable gathering when withdrawn late on.
Waterford were left needing to beat Limerick on Monday evening in Dungarvan to stay in the competition.
Waterford: F Condon; C Buckley, R Cahill, S O’Connor; B Nolan, S Leahy, C Faherty; M O’Halloran, K Murphy; S Lynn, P Whyte, S Nolan; B O’Halloran, K Moore, K Guiry. Subs: D Houlihan for Leahy, I Galgaly for Lynn, J Curran for S Nolan, S Crotty for Cahill, G Murphy for M O’Halloran.
Scorers: K Moore 1-1, B O’Halloran 0-2, B Nolan and P Whyte 0-1 each.
