Wicklow’s promotion hopes took a shattering blow in Aughrum today, after Waterford’s hounding of the Garden County defence left Wicklow with a massive deficit to breach in a game they never looked like getting anything out of.
Waterford raced into a 5 point lead after only seven minutes, 3 of those courtesy of a green flag raised by Mark Ferncombe.
It would 10 minutes in before Wicklow managed to raise a flag of any kind, and it came from a Seanie Furlong free. Any hopes of a comeback were dashed when Ferncombe again exploited confusion in front of Mervyn Traver’s defense to extend the lead.
The nightmare continued when on 14 minutes Ferbcombe again made the most of shambolic defending to make the gap between the sides 11 points. Austin O’Malley pointed for the Garden County just before Leighton Glynn scored a tremendous point into the wind.
The sides exchange points over the next while leaving it at Wicklow 0-05 Waterford 3-06 at Half Time.
The second half started a little brighter for Wicklow, with Glynn and Seanie pulling two points back, but 10 minutes in Waterford got another goal.
On 47 minutes, Waterford raised a white flag, and it would be the last score they would register for the rest of the game. But the damage had been done. A combination of Waterford’s good football, a strong wind with them in the first half and a Wicklow side that left a hell of a lot in the dressing room created the perfect storm that left many in Aughrim wondering what they had just witnessed.
Here’s the thing though, the Wicklow side that played out their today are a hell of a lot better than the performance displayed. Wicklow notched up 8 unanswered points, including a penalty from the boot of Glynn to reduce the deficit to 4 points at full time, but a shoddy start cost us what could be a decisive 2 points in a league that you just can’t afford to lose ground.
It wasn’t great. In fact it was horrific to watch at times, but this side is only coming together in a competitive sense for 2012 and the players and management deserve the opportunity to bed in and get up and running proper. We’re only shy of February, a lot of players have been tried, and now they just need the chance to build up steam.
The biggest tragedy of today will not be the manner in which we were beaten; it will be if we are beaten in that manner again next week.
You lose, you learn, you move on. There’s nowt much else you can do.
WATERFORD: K Cotter; K Connery, M O’Gorman, C Phelan; T Grey, E Walsh, W Hennessy; S O’Hare, S Ahearne (1-0); C O’Keeffe, C McGrath (0-1), P Hurney (0-3); S Fleming (0-2), G Hurney (0-1, f), M Ferncombe (3-0). Subs: T O’Gorman for O’Keeffe, J Veale for McGrath, JJ Hutchinson for Ahearne, A Brophy for Fleming, T Ó hUallacháin for P Hurney.
WICKLOW: M Travers; C Hyland, A McLoughlin, J Bolger; P Cunningham, R Finn, A Byrne; J Stafford (0-1), A Merriman; J Kelly, A O’Malley (0-2), D Hayden; D O’Sullivan, S Furlong (0-5, 3f),L Glynn (1-3, 1-0 pen, 0-1f).Subs: N Gaffney for Bolger, N Mernagh for Hayden, M McLoughlin for Cunningham, P Burke (0-1) for Kelly, T Hannon for O’Malley.
Referee: D O’Mahoney (Tipperary).
