Deise revenge mission leaves Dublin reeling
NHL DIVISION 1: Waterford 4-13 Dublin 0-12
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Wednesday February 24 2010
DUBLIN got their NHL campaign off to the worst possible start in Walsh Park on Sunday as Waterford exacted some revenge for last year's shock defeat to the Sky Blues.
And to add injury to insult, All Star Alan McCrabbe suffered a feared broken leg, which later transpired not to be as serious.
The fact that Waterford were without so many big names while Dublin lined out at full strength (apart from the injured David O'Callaghan and Liam Ryan) only exacerbated the defeat.
Dublin manager Anthony Daly was at a loss to explain his side's terrible sluggishness and bad touch. They have had nine players away with their colleges and fielded a second string in the Walsh Cup but that still didn't explain it and he didn't try to sugar-coat things.
Given that he's still resting so many of his veterans, Waterford manager Davy Fitzgerald reckoned that Dublin had possibly underestimated the strength of his side's challenge, but the Leinster finalists travelled down the night beforehand so obviously weren't complacent.
What they met was a Deise side full of vim, vigour and hunger who sent away the large home crowd (6,000-plus) delighted with their relatively inexperienced side's big victory.
Kevin Moran soloed through to split the Dublin defence after just seven minutes and laid off for Gary Hurney to goal, and Waterford had raced into a seven-point lead by the end of the first quarter.
But then they didn't score for 12 minutes as Dublin, led almost single-handedly at times by McCrabbe – who played very deep in midfield – tried to battle their way back into it.
Waterford were seven points up again by half-time (1-10 to 0-6) but it could have been more had Dublin 'keeper Gary Maguire not made a brilliant point-blank save from Tomas Connors just before the break.
Within five minutes of the restart Dublin's net shook again when a Shanahan flick across the goal was deflected into Shane Walsh's path.
Three changes, including the arrival of former football stalwart Shane Ryan, helped Dublin to a run off four unanswered points, and things might have changed had Liam Rushe then not shot from far too far out and McCrabbe not been injured.
As Daly noted, the visitors were beginning to get a little foothold but the subsequent long delay took the momentum from them and when it restarted again they were dispatched clinically with two goals inside 90 seconds.
Waterford's third came from a mazy run by captain Stephen Molumphy, who looked remarkably sharp considering his fresh Chad tan.
Their fourth green flag was raised 30 seconds later, when Connors laid off to Moran to open up Dublin's ridiculously porous defence.
And the Dubs were lucky there wasn't a fifth as Shanahan blazed a great chance over the bar in the dying minutes.
McCrabbe's injury initially looked extremely serious but x-rays later showed no broken bones, just serious bruising of his knee, and it remains to be seen how long Dublin's All Star is sidelined.
