The Waterford footballers crave a win of any description over Carlow to gain a respectable finishing position in Division 4 and move towards a season defining Munster quarter final against Clare with a sense of purpose.
Promotion prospects evaporated pretty quickly. Clare hit the ground running at Fraher Field and despite digging out a draw (that so nearly became an injury time win) away to Tipperary, Niall Carew accepted that they never appeared up in Antrim. That Creggan no show lingered for the home tie with London that followed. The Exiles arrived fully tuned for another ambush. Playing a half hour versus 14 men, Waterford huffed and puffed. They wasted 13 opportunities in all. London soaked up the pressure and caught them on the counter. Their winning margin could have been bigger only for a late penalty stop by Stephen Enright. By round five, they pulled themselves together at both ends as their behind the scenes work gained a first win over high flying Leitrim. For 55 minutes last Sunday, they pushed Wicklow (without the services of Paul Whyte and Tony Grey) before Seanie Furlong banged in two goals to flatter the hosts.
Plotting a way around the defensive blockades has proved difficult from day one. With 3-58 posted in six games, they rank as the lowest scorers across all four divisions. It works out as an average of around eleven points per game. Goals in particular are hard to come by especially as one of the three already accounted for arrived from the penalty spot. They appear to be sorting out this glaring issue as the league progresses however with Shane Ahearne (1-11) and JJ Hutchinson (0-9) carrying more responsibility. How they survive without top scorer Paul Whyte on Sunday will be instructive.
Keeping a tighter panel this term, Niall Carew has looked at 26 players so far. The two real finds of the spring come in the form of defensive pair Dean Crowley and Oran Keevers. Kieran Connery is back on form at number four with another newbie in Wayne Hutchinson also seeing significant game time.
Opponents Carlow also start round seven on only three points with plenty of pain thrown into their campaign. They lost star midfielder Brendan Murphy for the entire year through his army commitments in Lebanon. Their defence is by far the leakiest in the country. 11 goals and 111 points have flew in the backdoor. On their home patch, Tipperary kicked 2-24 in the first round. “We looked to be stuck to the ground,” manager Anthony Rainbow remarked afterwards. It was a sign of what was to follow. Wicklow hammered in 1-25 and Clare helped themselves to 3-21 last weekend. In the middle of this defensive madness, they did achieve a high scoring win over Antrim and a share of the spoils away to London. Rainbow’s men look forward to welcoming Meath in the Leinster championship.
Avoiding the ignominy of drop dead last is among the many motivations to wrap up with a win in this dead rubber. With the goal of promotion erased from the list, a second competitive success of the season will make Waterford believe that they have left a laboured start behind them as a Banner revenge mission now becomes the number one target. It makes nine weeks of waiting easier to digest.
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