By Ray Scott
Waterford had to wait until the third minute of injury time to grab a share of the spoils with Longford Town at the RSC.
This was a game that started brightly for both sides but it was the visitors who took the lead eight minutes before the break when Shane Elworthy reacted fastest after Ryan Graydon had broken through the defence and crashed his first effort off the crossbar and his second was cleared by Darragh Power.
The second half saw a much-improved performance from the home side with early chances for Richard Taylor and Junior Quitirna but Luke Dennison was superb between the posts for Longford.
He dived full-length to deny Shane Griffin. Later, Cian Kavanagh saw a header come back off the crossbar as the Longford defence held firm.
It looked like it was going to be three defeats on the bounce for the Blues, but they kept pressing forward and were rewarded with the last touch of the game when substitute Louis Britton rose to power Junior’s corner to roof of the net for a deserved equaliser.
Speaking after the game Louis said, "It's been a tough time for me. I think that's four games without a goal but luckily enough, I was on the end of the cross today and I managed to get on the scoresheet.
"Hopefully we got the right point, to be honest. It was a tough game but we'll take the point and move on to next week."
Manager, Ian Morris, says that goal was a long time coming:
"It was well-deserved. I think they had one shot on target and Murph made a good save after two minutes and I don't think Murph had anything else to do in the goal.
"We created chances in the first half. A poor goal [conceeded] again - it comes from a throw-in deep in their half and they've managed to get through us and we've two or three opportunities to clear the ball and don't do it. So, again, another mountain to climb."
However, Morris says they came out for the second 45 minutes with renewed energy:
"We addressed a couple of bits at half-time and, to be honest, the second half we were excellent. I thought we controlled the game. We were in control of everything.
"I thought Yassine (En-Neyah) and Junior (Quitirna) were a different class today. They were really, really excellent. And then the boys who came on were excellent as well.
"So, second-half performance, I was really, really pleased. The first-half performance was a typical two sides going toe to toe, except for the goal, which was important, obviously."
The Blues are out again next Friday (April 8th) against Cobh Ramblers and Ian Morris says it was important to come away with the point from last night's game:
"Yeah it's a huge point. Every point you can put on the table is going to big. The other two ahead of us won tonight 1-0.
"We need to claw that back. We've got Cobh next week - we need to go get three points.
"Then it's a massive weekend, a weekend that you want. Friday and Monday: Galway and Cork both here. That's what you play for."
