Liam Lawlor full of praise for Waterford boss Tom McGlinchey

Waterford will face UCC in the McGrath Cup final at Fraher Field, Dungavan on Saturday (6pm) following their shock victory over Cork last Sunday in Clashmore.

It is Waterford’s first appearance in the McGrath Cup final since 2002, but they have had to wait a lot longer for a competitive win over the Leesiders. Those in attendance at Clashmore referred to 1957 as the last time Waterford overcame their neighbours, but that was the year they sensationally beat Kerry in Walsh Park. Waterford last beat Cork in a Munster championship game played at Lismore in 1960, when the final score was Waterford 1-9, Cork 0-11 — the same margin as last Sunday.

Attacker Liam Lawlor was full of praise for Waterford manager Tom McGlinchey on Sunday.

“I was over the moon when Tom rang me to represent the county again. To be honest with you, he is an absolute gentleman and I have loved my time working with him so far. I just hope that we can be successful this year and get out of Division 4.

“It’s a fantastic win for us and another competitive game next week against UCC — we had two good wins against UL and CIT and this just keeps the momentum going. Tom has the team going well and working hard for each other. It’s a long time since we beat Cork in a competitive game and it makes it all the sweeter to have a final to look forward to this early in the year.

“We have good belief in the group here and there’s a lot of players coming back in. It’s another stepping stone. We are preparing for the first round of the league on Saturday week against Wicklow in Fraher Field and that’s the aim. This just helps us because we get another competitive game and those games are so important.”

The Nire man also called on Waterford people to support the team next weekend: “Waterford people are great to support hurling and football so let’s hope that they can come out and support us and hopefully we can get a bit of silverware. We have some great experience there but we also have some youth. There’s nothing like competitive games to help them get up to speed because it will be a shock to the system on January 31. That will be a different ball game, when you are playing National League football.”