Gaelic Games

Numbers game catches up with Antrim in Waterford

Visitors had captain Eoghan Campbell sent off in first half

Waterford's Shaun O’Brien saves a penalty from Antrim’s Gerard Walsh. Photograph: Ken Sutton/Inpho

Sun Feb 26 2023 - 16:58

Waterford 1-22 Antrim 0-17

Davy Fitzgerald got the win but not the performance that he wanted from his Waterford side in Dungarvan on Sunday afternoon. The home team needed a last-minute penalty save from goalkeeper Shaun O’Brien, five points from substitute Austin Gleeson and two peaches from full back Conor Prunty to fend off 14-man Antrim.

“Ye [Waterford] went up to Antrim last year and beat them by a point,” Fitzgerald said after the game. “We won by eight today. It’s a result. As regards the performance, it was average. That’s what I think. I don’t think a whole pile of it. We got the result, so we did. We were missing a lot of bodies, fellas got a chance. It was okay.”

The winners were guilty of 15 wides, their inaccuracy one of many frustrating parts of the Waterford display.

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“I wasn’t happy with the intensity in the tackle, I wasn’t happy with our work rate, some of our shooting, some of our decision making,” Fitzgerald added. “We should have had it a lot handier than we did. We got a result by eight and we’re still not happy. That’s good. Ye beat them by a point last year, as I said, but I expect more.”

The crowd really only came to life in the closing stages when O’Brien made his spectacular save from Gerard Walsh. Fergal Horgan flashed Calum Lyons a black card for his foul on Paddy Burke.

“I don’t think it was a penalty, I think Fergal got that one completely wrong,” Fitzgerald insisted. “I saw it back, there were two or three guys inside him, it wasn’t a goal scoring opportunity.”

Horgan also showed a yellow card to the Waterford physio in the second half, again a decision that Fitzgerald also disagreed with.

“He said he was giving messages in. He, 100 per cent, wasn’t giving messages in. I think he was wrong.”

Antrim lost captain Eoghan Campbell to a straight red card on 22 minutes after an off the ball incident with Reuben Halloran.

“I didn’t see it,” said their manager, Darren Gleeson. “Conor Doyle, the linesman, was close enough to it. We’ll look back at the video. It had a big bearing on the game but we hold ourselves accountable for our decisions on the field, it’s nothing to do with the officials.”

The sides were level five times in the second half before the hosts pulled away.

“The numbers game caught us really in the end,” Gleeson admitted.

Waterford: S O’Brien; C Gleeson, C Prunty (0-2), C Ryan (0-1); S McNulty, C Lyons (0-3), J Fagan (0-1); J Barron (0-1), P Leavey (0-1); J Prendergast (0-1), P Curran (1-4, 1-0 pen, 2f), G Fives; R Halloran, DJ Foran (0-1), N Montgomery (0-1). Subs: C Daly for McNulty (blood, 10-13), C Daly for McNulty (h-t), A Gleeson for Halloran (45) (0-5 4fs), Padraig Fitzgerald for Curran (54) (0-1), Patrick Fitzgerald for Montgomery (61), C Dunford for Leavey (66).

Antrim: T Smyth; P Burke, R McGarry, S Rooney; G Walsh (0-1f), E Campbell, C Bohill; M Bradley (0-1), P Boyle (0-1); K Molloy (0-2), N McKenna, N McManus; C Cunning (0-11, 0-10f), J McNaughton, S Elliott. Subs: E O’Neill for McNaughton (blood, 7-11), N O’Connor for Bohill (33) (0-1), E O’Neill for S Elliott (h-t), N Elliott for McManus (46), J Maskey for Boyle (57), R McMullen for McKenna (73).

Referee: F Horgan (Tipperary)

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