‘Basic mistakes’ frustrate Liam Cahill but Waterford avoid upset against brave Laois

It wasn’t until Stephen Bennett found the net from a tight angle deep into stoppage time that their ticket to the next round was stamped.

Waterford's Shane Bennett and Ian Kenny tackle Willie Dunphy of Laois in this afternoon's All-Ireland SHC qualifier in Nowlan Park. Picture: INPHO/Lorraine O’Sullivan

All Ireland SHC R1 Qualifier 

Waterford 3-23 

Laois 2-21

It was the weekend of the Munster hurling final, the Leinster final, Davy versus Lohan — yet Waterford came dangerously close to being the wrong side of the weekend’s big hurling story before eventually averting disaster and falling over the line against Laois on Saturday in Nowlan Park.

It took late goals from Patrick Curran and Stephen Bennett to save the Déise’s blushes and secure a five-point victory, after they went from eight points up at half-time to one behind going into the last 10 minutes.

“They (the players) just seem to make really basic mistakes at the wrong times and teams turn us over,” was manager Liam Cahill’s assessment.

“At one stage in the second half we drove seven or eight wides, one after the other. That’s unforgivable stuff with the quality you are meeting here and the level of hurling you’re at. I’m not blaming the players. They had the bravery to take them on but they need to be more clinical,” he added.

Waterford shot 18 wides in total, including 11 in the second half alongside a mere seven points. There was a lack of precision and killer instinct about their play in the first half too, but it didn’t seem to matter at the time. Kevin Moran got a stroke of luck for his deflected goal, Stephen Bennett and Neil Montgomery had chances that weren’t finished, in Bennett’s case because of a heroic block from Donnchadh Hartnett, but despite all this, Waterford looked comfortable. They led by 1-16 to 0-11 at the interval but were trailing by the second half water break following goals from Paddy Purcell and Ciarán Comerford.

“We gave Laois the utmost respect. I can’t emphasise that enough. If we didn’t, we would have been caught today,” said Cahill.

“I think the players were very much aware at half time that it was only a job half done, I spoke about it a lot.

“They hurl for me every day and in fairness they did that right to the end there today. A number of players lost the individual battles at key stages and we tended to switch off,” Cahill admitted.

Purcell showed his class with three very good points in the first half and followed up with a goal on 41 minutes. Gradually, Laois were starting to get their forward line in order, in order to take some of the pressure off Purcell and PJ Scully. Willie Dunphy, Ross King and Stephen Maher all made no impression and were replaced. With Waterford missing chance after chance, the midlanders’ hopes of an upset swelled with every score.

When Charles Dwyer leapt to claim a high ball and feed Comerford for the second goal, the only question was if they hit the front too quickly, leaving Waterford too much time to reply.

A fine catch from Austin Gleeson set up Curran for the first goal, Bennett fired the second from a tight angle, edging Waterford into the next round draw, where they’ll be paired with either Galway or Cork.

“The only route in Championship is the direct route so whoever comes through a provincial final is in a great position,” said Cahill.

“For us, it’s great to have the back door. We’re still thrilled to still have an opportunity to get to the latter stages of the championship.”

In an unusual departure, Laois still have one big match to play, but no championship. The end of their journey in the race for the Liam MacCarthy and Westmeath’s win in the Joe McDonagh Cup means the two midlands rivals will probably play their league relegation final next weekend.

And while all of Laois was bemoaning their second big missed opportunity at this venue in less than a year (they lost to Clare by a point at the same stage of last year’s championship) Seamus ‘Cheddar’ Plunkett was calmly looking ahead to that league encounter.

“I’m not interested in these sort of moral victories out of losing a game like that,” he said. “We could have won the game, I’m not interested in that. I’m interested in how we can go about improving ourselves and turning over some of these teams. You don’t need to beat them the whole time but you need to turn them over on a reasonably regular basis to give you self-confidence,” he continued.

“We have a relegation match next week against Westmeath to stay in the premier division of the national hurling league. Waterford is done now. Our full focus is getting ourselves ready for the next Saturday and lifting ourselves off the floor to be ready for the same type of fight.”

Scorers for Waterford: Stephen Bennett (1-8, 7f, 1 65), P Curran (1-2), K Moran (1-1), D Hutchinson (0-3), C Lyons and A Gleeson (0-2 each), J Prendergast, J Fagan, I Daly, N Montgomery, D Lyons (0-1 each).

Scorers for Laois: PJ Scully (0-10, 9f, 1 sideline), P Purcell (1-4), C Comerford (1-0), C Dwyer (0-2), C Collier, P Delaney, J Keyes, E Rowland (f), A Dunphy (0-1 each).

WATERFORD: S O’Brien; I Kenny, C Prunty, C Gleeson; C Lyons, I Daly, Shane Bennett; N Montgomery, P Curran; J Fagan, J Prendergast, K Moran; D Hutchinson, A Gleeson, Stephen Bennett.

Subs: D Lyons for Montgomery (30), M Kiely for Moran (48), P Hogan for Fagan (51), J Barron for Prendergast (58), S McNulty for Shane Bennett (60).

LAOIS: E Rowland; D Hartnett, S Downey, F Fennell; P Delaney, C McEvoy, S Maher; J Keyes, Jack Kelly; C Collier, W Dunphy, P Purcell; C Dwyer, R King, PJ Scully.

Subs: C Comerford for Dunphy (33), J Ryan for Maher (35), A Dunphy for Purcell (41, temp), A Dunphy for King (56), J Lennon for McEvoy (63), M Whelan for Keyes (70+1).

Referee: L Gordon (Galway).