Rampant Waterford to the four
Waterford cruised to their third win of the SSE Airtricity Premier Division with a four-star display against Finn Harps at the RSC last night.
The visitors were lucky not to be reduced to 10 men on 13 minutes when full-back Colm Deasy put in a late lunge on Kevin Lynch in front of the Waterford dugout, but referee Graham Kelly opted to produce a yellow card after speaking to his fourth official Sean Grant.
Caolan McAleer went close to putting Finn Harps in front less than two minutes later, when the midfielder took possession of the ball 25-yards from goal, but his goalbound effort took a deflection off Damien Delaney that took the ball inches wide of Matt Connor’s right-hand post.
Waterford keeper Connor made a brilliant save to deny the visitors the opening goal on 25 minutes, when Mark Coyle slipped the ball out to the left-side of the penalty area for Niall Logue, who cracked in a powerful left-footed shot, but his effort was touched onto the posts at the expense of a corner kick.
Finn Harps did have a man sent off by referee Kelly two minutes later, when midfielder Coyle, who was booked on nine minutes for a late tackle on Zack Elbouzedi, picked up his second yellow to join manager Ollie Horgan in the stands after putting a rough challenge in on Shane Duggan.
The Blues had their first chance of note on 37 minutes, when Elbouzedi sent in a fine left-wing corner kick to the back post that picked out the run of Rory Feely, but his close-range header was well saved by Harps goalkeeper Ciaran Gallagher.
Aaron Drinan, who scored twice for Waterford in their win over St Pats, broke the deadlock on 40 minutes, when Scott Twine knocked the ball back for Rory Feely and his delivery from the right saw the on-loan striker glance a header to the far corner past keeper Gallagher.
Twine could have doubled the Waterford lead less than two minutes later, when he raced onto a pass from JJ Lunney on the right-side of the penalty area, but his left-footed shot was blocked out at the near post by Finn Harps captain Keith Cowan.
Daniel O’Reilly tried to catch Blues keeper Matt Connor off his guard on 53 minutes, when the full back cracked in a free kick from 25 yards, but the ball went over the bar before Twine had a shot blocked out for a corner kick after an Elbouzedi pass.
Drinan grabbed his second goal of the contest on 66 minutes when JJ Lunney cracked in a shot that was saved by keeper Gallagher and, when the rebound broke to Shane Duggan, his effort was parried into the path of the centre-forward and he couldn’t miss with a simple tap in to the back of an empty net.
Waterford added a third goal seven minutes later when Twine did well down the right channel to pull the ball back into the path of midfielder Shane Duggan, who steered a right-footed 12-yard shot past the helpless Finn Harps keeper Gallagher to ensure all three points for his side.
Dean Walsh put the icing on the cake in a rampant Blues performance when he got his name on the scoresheet in the final minute when a magnificent right-wing cross from Izzy Akinade picked out the striker at the back post and he planted a header past Harps keeper Gallagher
WATERFORD FC:
Matt Connor, Rory Feely, Kevin Lynch (Dean Walsh ‘83), Damien Delaney, Maxi Kouogun, Karolis Chvedukas (Bastien Héry ‘69), Shane Duggan, JJ Lunney, Zack Elbouzedi (Izzy Akinade ‘76), Aaron Drinan, Scott Twine
FINN HARPS:
Ciaran Gallagher, John Kavanagh (Mark Russell ‘74), Daniel O’Reilly, Colm Deasy, Keith Cowan, Caolan McAleer, Mark Coyle, Sam Todd, Niall Logue, Nathan Boyle (Jacob Borg ‘37), Raffaele Cretaro (Tony McNamee ‘79)
Graham Kelly (Cork)
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