Sport

Horan happy to grind out another victory

Limerick 0-14 Waterford 0-9: LIMERICK MANAGER Maurice Horan was a relieved man after his side defeated Waterford to book their…

Mon Jul 18 2011 - 01:00

Limerick 0-14 Waterford 0-9:LIMERICK MANAGER Maurice Horan was a relieved man after his side defeated Waterford to book their place against Wexford in the qualifiers next weekend.

“It was not the most inspiring performance of all time,” he said. “But it was good championship football. Our backs were up against the wall and we had to weather a storm when they brought it back to nine points each.”

There were a number of talking points with the first arriving after 17 minutes when Meath referee Cormac Reilly awarded Waterford a penalty having deemed Tommy Stack fouled Paul Whyte, but after consulting his umpires he opted to throw the ball in. Limerick led by a point at that stage and went straight upfield to add another.

After they were level three times inside 13 minutes, it took a superb save by Kieran Cotter to deflect a Séamus O’Carroll shot over for a point that saw Limerick lead 0-9 to 0-7 at the interval.

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Cotter made a breathtaking dive to deny Ger Collins a certain goal in a second half which saw both teams squander goal chances. “It was a marvellous save and nine times out of 10 Ger would have scored,” remarked Horan.

Limerick went 14 minutes without a score during which Pat Hurney and Paul Whyte levelled the scores once again. Controversy followed on the hour. As a Limerick player lay on the ground players began to jostle. Just as the referee was about to throw in the ball to resume the action, Limerick’s Tommy Lee was decked by Gary Hurney. After consulting his umpires, Reilly issued a straight red card to Hurney.

Two points by Kelly and others by Collins and substitute John Cooke made it safe for Limerick.

Horan admitted his side are “riding their luck”. “But I’m happy with the way we have ground out wins against Offaly and now Waterford”. Horan added his pre-season target “was to win promotion to Division Two and to win the Munster championship. Instead we were relegated and we played poorly against Kerry. But we are crippled by injuries and we will battle on and look forward to facing Wexford next weekend

“In the qualifiers every week is a long time and we will not be thinking beyond that game. We have a lot of work to do,” he said.

LIMERICK: B Scanlon; T Stack, S Gallagher, S Lavin; J Riordan, J McCarthy, P Ranahan; S Buckley, T Lee; S Kelly (0-7, 0-3 frees), J Mullane (0-2), M Sheehan; G Collins (0-2, 0-1 free), S O’Carroll (0-2), I Ryan. Subs: B Fitzpatrick for Stack (24 mins), J Cooke (0-1) for Sheehan (45 mins), E O’Connor for Mullane (55 mins), E Hogan for O’Carroll (65 mins), P Kinnerk for Lee (72 mins).

WATERFORD: K Cotter; M O’Gorman, T O’Gorman, K Connery; T Grey, C Phelan, W Hennessy; B Wall (0-1), M Ahearne; P Whyte (0-4, 0-2 frees), S Dempsey, C O’Keeffe; S Fleming (0-1), G Hurney (0-1), P Hurney (0-2). Subs: B Phelan for Dempsey (30 mins), C McGrath for Wall (half-time), T Connors for P Hurney (62 mins), JJ Hutchinson for Fleming (72 mins).

Referee: C Reilly (Meath).