Waterford contribute to own downfall in London drubbing

Liam Gallagher of London, left, and Conor Murray of Waterford pictured at the launch of the Tailteann Cup at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Shauna Clinton/Sportsfile

Tailteann Cup: Waterford 0-10 (0-0-10) London 5-12 (5-0-12) 

Another fruitless outing for the Waterford footballers, and this one will sting, given how self-inflicted this hammering was. London certainly played some good football in their Tailteann Cup opener on Sunday, but Waterford’s needless turnovers and poor kickouts made the Exiles’ win all too easy.

Waterford needed to avoid the concession of any green flags in that first half and make the most of their Fraher Field breeze from outside the arc. But, they didn’t register a single two-pointer and had conceded their first of five goals with less than a minute played.

And that set the tone.

They conceded three goals in the first 20 minutes, with a fourth following before the break. The fifth in the second half means that Waterford have now conceded 16 goals in their last five games.

The first goal came from a Joe McGill point attempt that Paudie Hunt was deemed to have dropped over the line after 50 seconds. The second goal arrived in the ninth minute, a Waterford turnover seeing Kristian Healy take a shot on goal, and while it was blocked, Shay Rafter crept in to finish the rebound.

The third goal was struck with 19 minutes played. A poor kickout was intercepted by McGill, then worked forward to Daniel Clarke and James Davis for the finish. At that stage it was 3-1 to 0-3, Waterford’s effort and fight unravelling faster than they could react. And that’s been the story of this season so far.

The fourth London major was the one they worked hardest for. A neat move involving Clarke, Seán O’Donoghue, Rafter and David Gouldson saw the latter hit the net from close range, leaving it 4-1 to 0-4.

The game was already over as a contest, and it didn’t help the Déise cause that Alan Dunwoody had been shown a black card for an off-ball tussle, leaving them down to 14 until the second half.

The latter half passed in limbo, the teams trading early scores before London mounted a run of 1-7 unanswered as the Déise failed to raise a white flag from the 52nd minute until added time.

Liam Gallagher and Rafter finished well-worked points in that spell, while the fifth green flag came from a shot off the post that Finbarr Crowley swept up and finished to the net.

Dunwoody added a pair of points in additional time to take his haul to 0-4, but the end result was a bitterly disappointing defeat.

Scorers for Waterford: A Dunwoody (0-4, 0-1 f), M O’Brien (0-3 f), A Ryan (0-2), S Curry (0-1).

Scorers for London: S Rafter (1-2), D Gouldson, J Davis, J McGill (1-1 each), H Walsh (0-3, 0-1 f), F Crowley (1-0), L Gallagher, K Healy, C Diver, C O’Donohue (0-1 each).

WATERFORD: P Hunt; C Ó Cuirrín, B Hynes, T Martin; L Mulligan, A Crawford, G Power; C Walsh, D Ryan; D Walsh, M Curry, M O’Brien; S Curry, A Dunwoody, A Murray.

Subs: A Ryan for C Walsh (HT), D Fitzgerald for Power (46), P McCarthy for O’Brien (60), K Flynn for D Walsh (65).

LONDON: A Walsh; S O’Donoghue, D Rooney, L Gallagher; D Gouldson, C O’Donohue, J Davis; C Gallagher, D Clarke; J McGill, F Crowley, K Healy; M O’Reilly, S Rafter, C Diver.

Subs: T Barry for Clarke (32), C McKeon for O’Reilly (49-53 temp), McKeon for Gouldson (56), L Murphy for Rooney (60), H Walsh for Barry (63), G Durrant for Diver (65).

Referee: S Lonergan (Tipperary)