Austin Gleeson steers Waterford home against Laois

Waterford 2-31 Laois 2-19

Austin Gleeson came off the bench and hit 0-6 for Waterford as they got the better of Laois to pick up their first win of the National Hurling League in O’Moore Park on Saturday night.

The home side led 2-13 to 1-14 in the 45th minute after Ryan Mullaney had crashed home his second goal. But a big moment had arrived moments earlier when Aidan Corby picked up a red card for a high challenge on Neil Montgomery.

That dismissal evened up things numerically as Waterford’s Michael Kiely had received his marching orders after just five minutes.

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Corby’s sending off was a huge blow for Laois and Waterford took control from there to the final whistle to eventually run out 12-point winners.

The introduction of former player of the year Austin Gleeson coincided with the sending off and he was in top form in the final quarter as Waterford pulled away.

The first half had been a much more even affair. Kiely’s sending off after just five minutes handed Laois the initiative but they could never get their noses in front despite a string of fine scores from the likes of Paddy Purcell, who excelled as the free man, Aaron Dunphy and Ian Shanahan.

Debutant Padraig Fitzgerald impressed for Waterford in the opening half with seven points while Neil Montgomery’s goal put them four points up in the 27th minute.

That score was cancelled out by Ryan Mullaney three minutes later but Waterford still led at the break by 1-10 to 1-9.

A couple of nice points from Stephen Maher helped Laois go ahead early in the second half but the red card changed the complexion of the game despite Laois briefly going ahead after Mullaney hit the net again.

Waterford though had plenty more in the tank and they outscored Laois by 0-17 to 0-5 in the final quarter to comfortably pick up the points.

Waterford: B Nolan; C Gleeson, C Prunty, S McNulty (0-1); J Fagan, C Lyons (0-2), M Fitzgerald (0-1); J Prendergast (0-3), C Daly; J Barron (0-3), T Barron, N Montgomery (1-2); M Kiely, D Hutchinson (1-1), Padraig Fitzgerald (0-7, 5f). Subs: P Curran (0-1) for T Barron (41), A Gleeson (0-6, 4f) for P Fitzgerald (47), R Halloran (0-2) for Daly (54), C Ryan (0-1) for McNulty (55), Patrick Fitzgerald (0-1) for Hutchinson (67)

Laois: E Rowland (0-1, f); D Hartnett, P Delaney, F C-Fennell; P Dunne, P Purcell (0-1), I Shanahan (0-1); J Kelly (0-1), A Corby; R Mullaney (2-2), T Keyes, S Maher (0-7, 4f, 1 ‘65); M Phelan (0-1), J Keyes, A Dunphy (0-2). Subs: R King (0-2) for T Keyes (45), L Senior (0-1) for Kelly (56), J Duggan for Dunphy (56), L O’Connell for J Keyes (62), J Walshe for Phelan (63)

Referee: Sean Stack (Dublin)