Longford 1-14 Waterford 1-05: Longford struggled to overcome a depleted Waterford side in the second round of the qualifiers in Portlaoise on Saturday evening.

The Munster side lined out without six of their selected side, yet for a long time they matched their opponents.

Damien Barden opened the scoring for Longford with a point but Billy Harty had the sides level after five minutes.

Waterford were to add just one further point in the opening half from Lee Hayes.

In the 25th minute of the game Damien Barden set up Padraic David for a Longford goal and they led at half-time by 1-8 to 0-2.

On the resumption Waterford received a tonic with a Hayes goal and then points from Con Power, Hayes and John Moore saw the margin reduced to four points.

Longford stepped up a gear, however, and points from Davis, Barden and Niall Sheridan killed off Waterford.

LONGFORD: D Sheridan; D Brady, C Conefrey, B Burke; M Mulleady, E Ledwith, D Reilly; L Keenan, D Hannify (0-1); A O'Connor, P Barden (0-4), T Smullen (0-2); D Barden (0-1), N Sheridan (0-2), P Davis (1-4). Subs: S Mulligan for Mulleady (64 mins), S Carroll for O'Connor (64 mins), B Sheridan for Brady (68 mins), E Williams for Davis (70 mins).

WATERFORD: P Houlihan; L Kavanagh, E Rockett, T Costelloe; P Queally, K Connery, N Hennessy; C O'Keeffe, A Hubbard; J Hearn, B Harty (0-1), P Ogle; L Ó Lolain, N Curran, G Powell. Subs: L Hayes (1-2) for Ó Lolain (29 mins), C Power (0-1) for Queally (half-time), J Moore (0-1) for Harty (53 mins), T Dunphy for Kavanagh (70 mins).

Referee: J McKee (Armagh).