Waterford beat Limerick IT

Waterford Crystal Cup Semi-Final: Waterford 3-12 LIT 2-13

Waterford advanced into the final of the Waterford Crystal tournament following a hard-fought but deserving two-point victory over Limerick IT at a very soft Fraher Field, Dungarvan, on Sunday and now meet Tipperary in the final next weekend.
Limerick IT, who will shortly set out in defence of their Fitzgibbon Cup, got off to a flying start and impressively eased into a 0-5 to 0-2 lead midway through the opening half. But it was Waterford who finished that first moiety on a high and Eoin Kelly’s goal from a 20 metre free in the 30th minute enabled to retire at the break leading by 2-5 to 1-6.
Waterford’s opening goalwas scored by Dan Shanahan on twenty four minutes, and though Joe Canning replied with a cracker of a goal for the losers four minutes later he was unusually wayward in his freetaking and wasted three gilt edged chances from placed balls that would ultimately cost them dearly.
Waterford never again surrendered their interval advantage and looked to be firmly in control when they opened up a six point advantage at the three quarter when Kelly brilliantly kicked the ball to the net.
Try as they might Limerick IT could never quite manage to erase their deficit. Cyril Donnellan and Canning worked hardest to do so with Donnellan having a particularly fine game, but despite the concession of that injury time goal the Waterford defence, powerfully marshalled by the half back trio of Wayne Hutchinson, Brian Phelan and Jack Kennedy, stood firm.
For Waterford manager Justin McCarthy the game threw up a number of pluses notwithstanding the absence of a number of regulars including the experienced Mount Sion duo of Ken McGrath and Tony Browne. Up front Eoin Kelly emerged as top scorer with an impressive tally of 2-3, but the one to really catch the eye in the sector was corner forward Shane Walsh. He may have accounted for only one point of his side’s total but he was probably the hardest grafter on view and set up several scores for colleagues.
Scorers for Waterford: E. Kelly(2-3); D. Bennett(0-4); D. Shanahan(1-0); J. Mullane(0-2); S. Prenergast, S. Casey, S. Walsh (0-1).
Scorers for Limerick I.T: J. Canning(1-6); P. O’Brien(1-0); C. Donnellan (0-3); S. Herlihy, B. Gaffney, J. Clancy, G. O’Mahony(0-1) each.
Waterford: C. Hennessy; T. Feeney. D. Prendergast. E. Murphy; W. Hutchinson. B.Phelan. J. Kennedy; M. Walsh. D. Bennett; J. Mullane. S. Prendergast. E. Kelly; S. Walsh. D. Shanahan. S. Casey. Sub: P. Kearney for Kelly(inj).
Limerick IT: M. Ryan; M. Walsh. A. Byrne. M. O’Bren; W. Hyland. S. Maher. G. O’Connell; J. McInerney. J. Clancy; N. Healy. C. Donnellan. S. Herlihy; B. Gaffney. J. Canning. S. Tobin.
Subs: P. O’Brien for Tobin; I. White or Herlihy; G. O’Mahony for McInerney.
Referee: Ambrose Heaney, Clare