By Ray Scott
Waterford extended their unbeaten run to four games with hard fought 2-1 win over Longford Town at Bishopsgate.
The home side started the better and went in front on four minutes when Matthew O Brien received a throw in from Ben Lynch deep in Blues territory. He spun to his left and fired a wonderful looping shot over Paul Martin into the top corner.
There was a big let off for the Blues four minutes later when Paul Martin spilled a corner but it was scrambled away off the goal line by Alex Baptiste.
This seemed to spur the Blues into action and they were level on 14 minutes when Yass En Neyah was fouled on the edge of the area by O'Brien and up stepped Phoenix Patterson to fire the free kick to the top left hand corner for his fourth goal in as many games.
The Blues were in front two minutes later with a move started by Darragh Power who won the ball in the middle, found Junior Quitirna and he slipped the ball across to Wassim Aouachria who calmly slotted a left footed effort under Colm Cox.
Waterford should have increased their lead on the stroke of half time when Aouachria met a Junior corner but his powerful header was parried by Cox.
Referee Oliver Moran waved away Waterford penalty claims on 52 minutes when En Neyah seemed to be pulled down and Junior fired over when the ball broke to him.
Patterson did have another free kick opportunity just after the hour but on this occasion, the ball was high and over the bar.
Longford did have a few chances late on, including a penalty shout when it looked like Richard Taylor pushed Jordan Adeyemo and an excellent save from Martin who parried a Darren Clarke deflected shot but the visitors defence held solid and the three points were secured that lifted Waterford into second place over Galway United on goal difference though they have played a game more.
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