Waterford 1-16; Galway 0-16: So poor against Dublin just six days earlier, Waterford showed the other side of their hurling character at Walsh Park yesterday, inflicting on Galway their first defeat in the league campaign and at the same time keeping alive their own chances of reaching the knockout stages.
Through the opening half they played with fluency and took their scores in a manner reminiscent of their early spurt against Limerick in last year's Munster Championship. Again, there was a fade out in the second-half but on this occasion they held on for a deserved win at the end of a magnificent match watched by over 3,000.
Through that first 35 minutes the home defence and midfield were dominant and forwards Ken McGrath and Paul Flynn devastating. An early Francis Forde point for Galway was followed by five on the trot for Waterford, three of them from McGrath and one each from Flynn and Eoin Kelly.
Forde struck again for the visitors after 12 minutes but Flynn replied with interest, deflecting a James Murray delivery to the net for the game's only goal.
Ten scoreless minutes followed before Flynn pointed again and between that and the break Waterford added five more points to which Galway answered with two Rory Gantley frees. That made it 1-11 to 0-4 at the interval.
Galway, without exam-tied Eugene Cloonan, brought on Joe Rabbitte at the start of the second-half and his influence was instrumental in a Galway fightback which left home supporters on tenterhooks towards the end.
Full forward Seamus Prendergast steadied the Waterford ship by sending over the bar but Galway points from Niall Hayes and Declan O'Brien cut the advantage to a goal. However, only two more points were scored in that tense final spell, through Dave Bennett for the winners and Rabbitte.
WATERFORD: S Brenner; T Feeney, J O'Connor, B Flannery, E Murphy, F Hartley, J Murray, T Browne (0-1), P Queally, D Shanahan, K McGrath (0-8, 3 frees), E Kelly (0-1), J Mullane, S Prendergast (0-1), P Flynn (1-4), Subs: D Bennett (0-1) for Mullane, B Phelan for Shanahan.
GALWAY: P Cummins; G Kennedy, C Moore, O Canning, B Higgins, L Hodgins, D O'Brien (0-1), R Gantley (0-4, frees), D Tierney (0-1), R Murray, O Fahy (0-1), K Broderick, D Hayes, M Kerins (0-2), F Forde (0-2), Subs: J Culkin for Murray, J Rabbitte (0-2) for Hayes, N Hayes (0-1) for Gantley, F Healy (0-2) for Broderick, R Murray for Culkin.
Referee: S Roche (Tipperary).
Waterford ... 1-16
Galway ... 0-16
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