Waterford cast out by the wayside

FOR National League teams, the annual round of Harp Lager FAI Cup clashes against non-League qualifiers represents something of a nightmare. Expected to win, losing becomes something of an embarrassment.

That embarrassment becomes acute when the tie lasts 300 minutes and the non-League team still wins out. Yesterday, Waterford were extremely red-faced as Wayside Celtic took their well-deserved place in the quarter-finals.

This was, in fact, probably Wayside Celtic's poorest performance of the three-game saga, but they still looked the better side for most of the proceedings. Tighter in defence, brighter in attack and better able to create space in midfield, the hosts made their visitors look second best up until the last few minutes. By that time, they had earned the piece of luck that prevented the tie being pushed into extra-time once again.

Waterford clearly came looking to put the Dubliners under more pressure than they had managed in either of the first two games, but despite pushing their full backs forward, they never seemed to gain control of an area dominated by the running, passing and tackling of Gerry Hayden.

The Wayside number 10 did much to give the locals their first-half dominance. He repeatedly pushed players into good wide positions with Colm Talbot and, early on at least, Frankie Byrne doing some fine running to create problems for the Waterford defence.

At the heart of that defence, Tony Hall coped particularly well with everything that came his way. Paul Bealin started slowly, but, after the first 10 minutes, gradually got on top of the task given him by manager Michael Bennett.

Crucially, however, all three of the game's goals came during those opening minutes. Waterford struck first, with James Cart by feeding Micheal Downey out on the right before moving into the area, taking the return ball well and slipping it low past Robbie O'Dowd.

With just three minutes played, it seemed as if Wayside were going to be made to pay for the chances they had squandered in the opening two games. However, a perfectly-struck free from Willy Simpson levelled affairs four minutes later. Play had barely restarted when Talbot found Frankie Byrne in space on the left and he placed his shot inches inside the far post. Wayside had the upper hand.

For a while, it looked like they might repeat Fanad United's humiliation of first division opposition. Certainly, the pace of Talbot was a never-ending source of trouble for the Waterford defence. His striking partner faded out of proceedings entirely, however, and when Bennett reverted to a flat back four, by replacing Bealin with Declan Power at the break, things started to look a little bit brighter for the visitors.

Within four minutes of the restart, O'Dowd was call on to make a terrific stop from Carthy. That aside, even Bennett admitted that "we lacked any sort of creativity and I just couldn't see where our goal was going to come from.

With Wayside's central defenders Willy Simpson and Padraig Mooney in fine form, Waterford's chances were limited, while their attempts to build down the left were repeatedly frustrated by the solid covering of Matt Grimes.

In the end, Wayside almost allowed themselves to be drawn into extra-time. A Joe Lawless goal was rightly disallowed, for offside, but the move should really have been legitimately finished by Richie Hale, who had a free header at Alan Reynolds' cross.