Wicklow 1-17 Waterford 0-15(After extra-time) A STRONG finish by Wicklow saw them over the finish line in extra-time after a hard-fought qualifier match at Aughrim on Saturday.

Waterford had beaten the Garden county by four points in the league at Aughrim three months earlier but it was Wicklow’s super subs Joey Kelly and Conor McGraynor who delivered the killer blows at the death this time.

The Deise had to play with 14 men for 45 minutes of normal time after key player Gary Hurney was red-carded after 25 minutes for an off the ball incident, but they were back to a full compliment of players for extra-time.

Wicklow were forced to line out without captain Leighton Glynn and corner back Ciarán Hyland because of ankle injuries.

With a strong wind behind them, Waterford led 0-7 to 0-4 at the break.

Harry Murphy sprang Conor McGraynor and Joey Kelly from the bench for the second half and McGraynor tucked a shot into the left corner of the net from a high-delivery from James Stafford early in the second half.It was nip and tuck thereafter and with the score 1-9 to 0-12, it was into extra-time.

WICKLOW: J Flynn; A Byrne (0-1), A McLoughlin, S Kelly; D Hayden (0-1), S Byrne, D Healy; J Stafford (0-1), P Burke; D O'Sullivan, J McGrath (0-3), R Finn; A O'Malley, S Furlong (0-2), T Hannon (0-2). Subs: C McGraynor (1-2) for O'Malley, J Kelly (0-3) for Hannon, N Mernagh (0-1) for Burke, N Gaffney (0-1) for Hayden, P Dalton for Healy, D Woods for Stafford.

WATERFORD: S Enright; M O'Gorman, T O'Gorman, K Connery; T Grey (0-1), S Briggs (0-1), W Hennessy; S Dempsey, P Hurney (0-5); L Ó Lionnáin, P Whyte (0-3), A Doyle; M Ferncombe (0-3), G Hurney (0-1), JJ Hutchinson (0-1). Subs: C O'Keeffe for Doyle, C McGrath for Ó Lionnáin, T Ó hUallacháin for Hutchinson, J Veale for Hurney (red card), E Walsh for Briggs, G Nugent for Whyte, A Brophy for P Hurney.

Referee: P O'Sullivan (Kerry).