Offaly's Ross Brady in possession watched by Waterford's man-of-the-match Gary Hurney during Saturday's All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Qualifier in O'Connor Park, Tullamore. | Photo: David Maher-Sportsfile
Offaly 0-15; Waterford 0-10
After what can only be described as their most successful season in decades, the Waterford footballers bowed out of the championship following a disappointing five-point defeat to Offaly in Tullamore last Saturday. However, despite this defeat, John Owens and his men can hold their heads high and look forward to 2011 with a degree of confidence.
The heavy rain which swept across the country last Saturday morning made the surface in O’Connor Park very slippery and it took both sets of players quite a while to adjust to the conditions.
In the first half there was very little pattern to the game which was proliferated with handling errors from both teams. Offaly did enjoy the majority of the possession but to the angst of the home supporters, several easy opportunities went askew in the early stages.
In contrast, while only making rare forays into Offaly territory, Waterford were very efficient in the opening quarter and made full use of the chances that they managed to create.
Waterford opened the scoring through an excellent left-footed point from Conor McGrath but this was Waterford’s only score until the 19th minute. During this time, Offaly managed to find their shooting boots and scored three times, two of which came from corner-forward Niall McNamee who gave an exhibition of finishing on the day. His first point in particular was one of beauty when he curled the ball over the crossbar off the outside of his right foot from an impossible angle.
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