Crystal's Nathan Phelan under pressure from Tramore's Mishak Babutu.
Tramore 3; Waterford Crystal 0
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Tramore bounced back to winning form in fine style at Graun Park on Thursday night last. The seasiders lost their previous home game to Villa and they were determined to get back to winning ways, something they did in fine style.
Waterford Crystal also lost their previous game to Southend United and although they gave their all they found the going difficult against their hosts. The visitors were on the defensive from the outset and although they managed to steady the ship midway into the first half, Crystal were still the cause of their own downfall as they conceded a couple of soft goals.
However, one would have to give credit to Tramore as they worked hard throughout and won the vital midfield battle, with Aaron Coad putting in a superb performance in the centre of the park, while Jamie Hunt caused endless problems going forward.
After Crystal forced a couple of corners in quick succession during the opening few minutes, they could have found themselves a goal down early on when Corey Kavanagh saw his corner kick quickly cleared, but when Mishak Babutu found himself clear he blasted wide from close range.
Jamie Hunt had a great opportunity to give his side the lead less than five minutes later when he raced onto a Babutu pass; however the centre-forward couldn’t direct his effort on target.
As the home side began to cause endless problems for the Crystal defence, Niall Kennedy should have hit the target on 10 minutes. Tramore continued to miss chance after chance, and went close for the sixth time in the match on 20 minutes when Kennedy turned provider for Babutu who should have hit at least the target, but only managed to drag a right-footed effort wide.
After Crystal failed to really get forward during the opening quarter, they could have broke the deadlock on 27 minutes when Nathan Phelan did superbly well down the right channel and crossed for the inrushing Dylan Robinson, who blazed wide from an excellent position.
