As the Páirc Uí Chaoimh ritual commemoration of the Black Hole of Calcutta proceeds with an inhuman, sweltering crush around the dressing-room doors, it's hard to find any cool reflection. But in the excitement of their heart-stopping win over Tipperary, Waterford's players are mindful that their mission to prove doubters wrong has just moved on to another level.

"People said we wouldn't do it two games in a row," says Eoin Kelly, "that we'd no consistency. We showed a lot of consistency today and battled to the end. I'd say Tipp thought they had it won, but we showed our spirit and came through in the end.

"In the second half they probably thought, 'ah that's Waterford finished now' when we fell behind. But we bounced back. The weather was great and the conditions were perfect. There were two great teams and a very sporting game.

"We gave it everything we had. That's all we can do. That's what we always do. But we'll take it one game at a time. That's two down and one to go. We'll be trying to get back our Munster title."

That Munster title is still in the team's sights after a late goal from replacement Paul O'Brien, brought in for a subdued Paul Flynn, effectively brought down Tipperary's challenge.

"He's a great bit of stuff," according to O'Brien's manager, Justin McCarthy, "but we've 30 people training and fellas have to be ready to come on. And that's one of the strengths of our team. We played here last week among ourselves at full force. It was flat out and one team was as good as the other."

Ken McGrath survives both the hordes and an injury, oblivious to both. "I pulled something, but I'll be grand," he reassures.

Tipperary manager Ken Hogan is torn between the disappointment at losing and a certain happiness at the displays of his rookie selections.

"There were four new lads who came in and adapted so well and were so committed and so courageous. We've got to work on that and build on it and come again. It's not going to be easy going through the qualifiers, but we'll just have to grind our teeth and stay going."

Hogan acknowledged the team's most striking weakness, the dependence on the exceptional talent of Eoin Kelly, scorer of 2-8 out of 3-12.

"Eoin was our only forward to score in the first half. That was a huge burden to take on. I think John Devane (full forward) did exceptionally well and fed Eoin well, but the ball didn't run for our lads. Benny Dunne was going in and looked like he'd been fouled. In fairness to the referee he was probably playing advantage."

There is one other emotion at play: frustration at the heavy schedule of club matches that played havoc with his preparations and, more acutely, he believes, compromised the team's freshness heading into a major match.

"We weren't as fresh as we should have been and I suppose in that context lads said that they felt dead with 10 minutes to go. They've had a huge amount of games in the past 15 weeks, between National League and championship matches with clubs.

"I hoped that they'd be fresh by this Sunday, but having said that I thought Waterford deserved their win. Our lads wanted to win so badly and it's a pity that they couldn't pull it off.

"We had (Eamonn) Corcoran and (Conor) Gleeson out last weekend. We had Mark O'Leary injuring his finger with the club last Tuesday. Things like that. They're all out again with their clubs on Wednesday night. I'm all for club hurling, but something has to give and unfortunately our fellas just weren't fresh coming into the game. We paid dearly for that.

"We wrote a letter to the county board expressing our concern that we needed one free weekend, but unfortunately we didn't get that. I'm not using that as an excuse and I'll take the brunt of that. In Tipperary the club championship goes ahead and I have to respect the wishes of the clubs.

"But at the end of the day this is a Munster championship and unfortunately the fresher team won."