AFTER A week beset by distraction, from Waterford manager David Fitzgerald’s going in against the county he represented for 20 years to the Byzantine dealings of the Cork and Waterford county boards in apparently trying to hatch venues for a final before the semi-finals had even taken place, yesterday’s GAA Munster hurling semi-final threw up predictable winners and an unexpected leading man.

Declan Prendergast has served Waterford in a number of capacities from the unloved full-back position to other defensive roles so when he took the field after half-time yesterday to play wing back the disappointing crowd of 11,028 probably weren't expecting a scoring tour de force.

But the Ardmore player delivered a storming display on the left defensive flank and steered over three quality points to assist the favourites’ comeback against a spirited Clare team.

“I was happy,” he said understatedly, “coming on at half-time – and scoring three points wouldn’t be natural to me, but we did well. There was a bit of pressure, Davy being from Clare brought a bit of pressure. Everyone was talking about his old days with them.”

How did he feel about his prolific contribution? Happy? “Yeah, it’s not every day.” He also outscored his conventional forward brother Séamus, who also came in as a replacement.

“Wasn’t hard today, he wasn’t great,” Declan summarised.

Manager Fitzgerald, his conflicted afternoon resolved, looked exhausted but relieved.

“I’m just glad it’s just done now. I suppose a lot of people will write us off after this. We have to step it up big time. Compared to what we saw last Sunday it was amazing how Cork played and we know we have to step it up.

“I thought Clare hassled and harried like their lives depended on it.

“I’m saying it for the last number of months that this was what was going to happen. I read their articles before the game. I knew it meant a lot to them. I think Clare over the last 15 years have never rolled to Waterford. They showed it again today.

“On the other side of it today our guys showed a lot of maturity, they didn’t panic at any stage, they held tough. There was a lot of pressure on there at times.”

Asked about the talk during the week about the presumed Cork-Waterford final taking place in Cork he was clearly irritated.

“I won’t talk about it. I’ll just tell you the team management had absolutely nothing to do with that. Never once did we want to talk about it or have it said and that is all I will say.

“We paid Clare the utmost respect and we would never ever do anything like that and you can trust me on that. We would not do that in Waterford with our team and our mentors. I don’t know what happened or what the story is but nothing to do with us.”

His Clare counterpart and former team-mate Ger O’Loughlin regretted that some of his team’s goal chances hadn’t been converted.

“If you look at it, Donal Tuohy had no save to make. Darach (Honan) was unlucky. He got in there in the second half. They’re the ones in a tight game you need to put away and he didn’t. We got a point out of it but if you’re rattling the net with those it just eases the pressure a small bit.

“As I say, we have to learn and we have to take every chance we get but I’m proud of the lads for their display.”