Waterford Mistakes punished by Kilkenny masters

The game panned out more or less as I expected. Waterford put in a spirited challenge and were never fully out of the game but Kilkenny’s class up front told in the second half.

Waterford needed to score goals to win this game. But they failed to threaten Kilkenny keeper Eoin Murphy’s goal on any occasion and never looked likely to create a solid goal chance.

After 15 minutes of the first half, both managers would have been happy enough as the scores were tied. But the next minute threw up the main play of the game. A long angled delivery from Kilkenny defender Michael Fennelly was poorly defended. Full-back Barry Coughlan and sweeper Tadhg De Burca got in a tangle and missed the ball. It is a basic mistake in any grade but it is invariably punished at this level. TJ Reid swivelled and raced onto the ball and fired it to the net.