It was a dismal day for Antrim’s hurlers at Corrigan Park on Sunday as they were completely outhustled and outmuscled by a Waterford team that arrived with intent.
With the Déise players going up against their old manager Davy Fitzgerald, perhaps they had added motivation but, having lost their opener in Carlow, the pressure has been on Peter Queally’s side to deliver in order to remain in the hunt for promotion – and that they did.
By half-time, Waterford had built a 16-point lead having played with the wrong wind at their backs and managed the second-half perfectly to head home with two massive points, leaving the Antrim boss with much to ponder.
Waterford’s Iarlaith Daly and Conor Sheahan celebrate following their emphatic victory over Antrim
“They got the breeze in the first-half and their idea was to kill us early to knock our confidence, and they did that, but they got too many easy scores,” Fitzgerald reflected.
“When you’re 16 down at half-time, you come out and do well for 10 minutes and get four or five scores – miss two or three more, and when we did, you could see our confidence drain, so it was survival mode until the end.
“I’m looking at myself, what we’re doing in training and everything, but I’ve said from day one here that an issue is not fighting hard enough.
“I’m not going to give up on that. I’m going to stay with it and see if we can get it right, but I feel gutted for Antrim supporters and the people putting in hard work.
“How we’re training and playing is completely different, so it’s not nice. I’m devastated as I don’t want to be losing any games, so I’m going to try everything to sort it out.
“I am just frustrated as I want to make a difference. I’m not coming up here for the craic, so we either accept it or make a decision.”
Playing with an extremely strong wind at their backs, Waterford immediately set about building a big lead and had two points on the board within the opening minute.
The lead was three with 10 played when they grabbed their first goal as a superb poc-out from Billy Nolan found Connor Prunty in stride, with the ball worked to Kevin Mahony to crack home.
Their second major came six minutes later from a Stephen Bennett penalty, awarded as he was adjudged to have been clipped outside the area but deemed to have been denied a goalscoring opportunity, and Keelan Molloy spent 10 minutes in the sin bin to compound matters.
The scores flowed for Waterford with Jamie Barron and Dessie Hutchinson hitting some beauties as Antrim only had a couple of James McNaughton frees to show until late in the half when Seaan Elliott had a sight of goal but shot over, yet it was the visitors with a commanding 2-14 to 0-04 lead.
Antrim made a decent start to the second period with the first four points, including one from substitute Eoin O’Neill, but were unable to sustain the momentum with Waterford adapting to playing into the gale, rattling off four of their own to restore their 16-point gap going into the final quarter.
They could have had a third goal only for the crossbar denying Hutchinson, but the game was long decided and petered out late with Waterford home and hosed.
Antrim’s Conal Bohill is tackled by Waterford’s Padraig Fitzgerald during the sides’ clash
Scorers, Antrim: J McNaughton 0-06 (6f); K Molloy 0-02; S Elliott, E O’Neill, G Walsh (f) 0-01 each.
Waterford: S Bennett 1-04 (1-00 pen, 1f); Padraig Fitzgerald (3f), D Hutchinson 0-04 each; K Mahony 1-00; J Barron 0-03; C Prunty 0-02; C Treen, M Fitzgerald, M Kiely, P Hogan, K Bennett, P Curran (1f) 0-01 each.
Antrim: R Elliott; E McFerran, R McCloskey, S Rooney; J Maskey, E Campbell, C Bohill; N Elliott, S Elliott; P Boyle, R McCambridge, K Molloy; J McLaughlin, J McNaughton, N O’Connor.
Subs: E O’Neill for Elliott (HT), C McKeown for Boyle (49), A McGarry 6 for McLaughlin (58), G Walsh for Molloy (60), K Molloy for R McCambridge (62).
Waterford: B Nolan; C Ryan, C Prunty, I Daly; M Kiely, M Fitzgerald, P Leavey; J Prendergast, C Sheahan; P Fitzgerald, J Barron, C Treen; K Mahony, S Bennett, D Hutchinson.
Subs: K Bennett for P Fitzgerald (44), P Hogan for Prendergast (44), P Curran for Treen (62), S Walsh for Bennett (65), G Fives for Prunty (67).
Referee: Caymon Flynn (Westmeath)