Waterford lost out to All-Ireland champions Limerick by three points in an epic Munster Hurling clash at the Gaelic Grounds last night.
The Dèise trailed by a point at the break having missed two good goal chances in a frantic opening half as Iarlaith Daly and Cian Lynch had to retire due to injury.
All-star Aaron Gillane hit 0-13 for the hosts (7 frees) as they went into a seven-point lead heading down the home stretch but Waterford came roaring back into the game with goals from a Stephen Bennett free and Jack Prendergast to reduce the deficit to a point.
Limerick hit the last two points courtesy of substitute Pat Ryan and a sixth from Diarmuid Byrnes, with the home side prevailing in a final score of 0-30 to 2-21.
Waterford boss Liam Cahill gave his thoughts on the performance after the full-time whistle.
Initial reactions to the result
"It was heart-stopping at times and riddled with errors at other times. It was all that Munster Championship hurling is - it was tenacious and hard-hitting and fast. You can sense I'm disappointed that we didn't get something out of the game even though we did struggle at certain periods."
Whether they deserved a win or not?
"Did we really deserve it over the hour? I'm not 100% sure. I'm initially feeling we probably didn't. This Limerick team; it's going to be very hard to try and unlock them as to what the strategy is to beat them. They're a real decent outfit."
Why they didn't deserve the win?
"Well, you can't afford to be butchering chances the way we are doing - you just can't. In top-class opposition, you just can't afford to be doing that. When you bring the ball into contact with this Limerick team they just dominate you, and we did that on a couple of vital occasions where we brought the ball into contact, lost it and it was turned over. The turnovers are big here with a massive Limerick crowd in their home ground, they have a big bearing on the game as the game progressed."
Frustration from missed chances
"Chances are chances. You have to be taking them. I know you're not going to get them all but there was a couple of them there - especially one or two goal chances maybe in the first half - had they gone. Limerick were minus Cian Lynch after a few minutes, minus Kyle Hayes today, Peter Casey, Seamus Flanagan - so if all them lads come back it's another headache again. That's if we do get the opportunity to meet them, but we have to try and park it as quick as we can now and see can we get ready for Cork in three weeks' time."
Breaking the goal-scoring duck against Limerick
"It's a positive but you have to be rattling that net every day you go out, especially with Limerick when they're able to pick off scores from long range. They're always going to be well into the 23 or 24 point mark so you have to be putting a goal or two on the scoreboard to counteract that. We have to keep at it. We keep our heads up. We keep going. We'll definitely improve again from tonight. Whether we can bring it to Walsh Park in three weeks' time remains to be seen, but we definitely have lots of learnings from tonight."
Iarlaith Daly's injury
"Iarlaith is a big loss to us. He started really well on the inside back line, which is a key position for us. That allowed Conor Prunty to follow Gearoid Hegarty and to do quite well up to halftime. It's like any team, when you lose one or two key players, it changes your dimensions and your shape a lot, and you have to kind of roll with the punches."
Three-week break before Cork
"We look forward to the three weeks definitely. We'll give these guys a bit of time to themselves now for the next couple of days. Then we'll get back and get our head around what is going to be a massive match in three weeks' time in Walsh Park with the visit of Cork. We have to switch our focus to that now straight away."
Limerick's accuracy on the home straight
"We look forward to the three weeks definitely. We'll give these guys a bit of time to themselves now for the next couple of days. Then we'll get back and get our head around what is going to be a massive match in three weeks' time in Walsh Park with the visit of Cork. We have to switch our focus to that now straight away."
Adjudicating the hand pass
"It's difficult, isn't it? You get the breaks sometimes and sometimes it goes against you. It's inconsistent, which is the big problem with everybody. I think it's frustrating and it's very difficult for referees as well. The referees can only judge it as they see it but yeah, I would have felt maybe one or two might have gone against us tonight, but I'm sure Limerick would feel the same."
Waterford support in the Gaelic Grounds
"It didn't sound like that [low Waterford attendance] now when we started coming at Limerick to be fair. We're really thrilled for the Waterford supporters that traveled today, but I suppose if I'm being really honest, I thought there would be more of them there, you're absolutely dead right. We came in and the bus and the colour just wasn't there. We kind of had a feeling that the Waterford people didn't travel. Hopefully they get behind this team because they have something to look forward to with this group of players if they really came behind them and support them."
