Waterford 0-14 Wicklow 0-10
Waterford made it five successive victories on Saturday night at an icy Fraher Field to get their Division Four campaign off to an ideal start, building on their McGrath Cup success.
With seven different scorers, and 10 of their scores coming from play, Tom McGlinchey’s side successfully maintained their early season momentum, limiting Wicklow to just four points from play.
A lively first half featured an impressive 16 points, with the hosts leading by 0-9 to 0-7 at the interval.
The Johnny Magee-managed Wicklow rose the livelier from the blocks, with John McGrath and Thomas Kelly pointing in the fourth and sixth minutes respectively. But back came Waterford with the next three points via the boots of Liam Lawlor, Michael O’Halloran and Patrick Hurney.
David Odlum restored parity in the 15th minute and the sides were level again on four further occasions between then and half-time. Gavin Nugent, Patrick Hurney and Shane Aherne pointed without reply for Waterford before another Odlum free narrowed Wicklow's interval arrears.
The second half was largely dominated by Waterford, who had standout performers in O’Halloran, Aherne and Tadhg hUallacháin, and by the 65th minute they led by seven points. Wicklow rallied in the closing stages with points from Conor McGraynor (2) and Dean Odlum, but Waterford were not to be denied their victory.
Elsewhere in Division three today Fermanagh impressed with a 0-16 to 0-07 home win over Louth.
Louth’s miserable start to the season in the O’Byrne Cup was reflected in another disappointing performance, as Colin Kelly remains in search of his first win as manager.
Talisman Sean Quigley impressed for Fermanagh with seven points, as his team maintained a grip of proceedings from the offset.
At the interval the scoreboard read 0-9 to 0-5 in favour of the Ernesiders, and despite a fourth point for Louth’s Declan Byrne shortly after the restart the margin between the teams would never bridge those three points.
Fermanagh trotted to victroy with six unanswered points in the closing 17 minutes.
Waterford: S Enright; D Crowley, R Ó Ceallaigh, T O'Gorman; T Ó hUallacháin (0-1), M O'Gorman, C Phelan; S Aherne (0-4; four frees), T Prendergast; M Curry, M O'Halloran (0-4), P Hurney (0-2); L Lawlor (0-1), J Veale, G Nugent (0-1).
Subs: M Ferncombe (0-1) for L Lawlor (26), L Ó Corraoin for J Veale (43), P Whyte for G Nugent (51), S Prendergast for C Phelan (59), O Keevers for M Curry (62).
Temporary Sub: David Grey for Thomas O’Gorman (73).
Wicklow: R Lambert; A Murphy, P Cunningham, A Byrne; D Healy, S Kelly, R O'Brien; P McLoughlin, A McLoughlin; D Woods, J McGrath, D Hayden; D Odlum (0-4; two frees), C McGraynor (0-2; two frees), T Kelly (0-1).
Subs: S Furlong for T Kelly, M McLoughlin for D Woods (43), M Kenny for J McGrath (49), C Murphy for A Byrne (53), P McWalter for R O'Brien (Black Card, 59).
Referee: Michael Collins (Cork)
