2019 Pre-season Friendly
Hibernians 0 Waterford FC 8
A sizeable crowd turned up in Ozier Park on Tuesday night last for this pre-season friendly between the Waterford Premier League joint-leaders Hibernians and a new look Waterford FC team.
All funds raised on the night went to the Hibernians club as they were the victims of a robbery last November when a number of valuable items were stolen from their clubhouse. The Waterford side had a number of their new signings on view and players such as Shane Duggan, J.J.Lunney, Zack Elbouzedi, Damien Delaney, Maxim Kouogun and Kevin Lynch looked the part during their periods of time on the park.
The Hibs team that played Waterford FC last Tuesday night at Ozier Park.
Retained players, Matthew Connor, Dean O’Halloran, Rory Feely, Cory Galvin and Dean Walsh also did well. A total of seven trialists also played a part in the contest. The Blues took the lead after just three minutes when Dean O’Halloran got in a fine cross and Zack Elbouzedi cracked the ball past Sean Whitty at his near post.
Another new signing, Shane Duggan made it two nil with a brilliant overhead kick from inside the penalty area after 21 minutes.
Shortly afterwards Zack Elbouzedi got free once again laid the ball off to J.J Lunney and the player signed from Bohemians during the close season cracked the ball past the helpless Sean Whitty. Lunney then sent over a corner-kick on 31 minutes to an unnamed trial player who had moved up from his defensive duties and duly headed the ball into an empty net after Sean Whitty had lost the flight of the ball. Zack Elbouzedi, who was given far too much room out on the left during the course of the opening 45 minutes, scored his second goal of the game four minutes later.
He cut into the 18 yards box and drilled the ball past the Hibernians custodian with his right foot. Shane Duggan, who signed from Limerick in November, netted his second goal five minutes before the interval as the Hibernians defence were cut wide open. The Waterford manager Alan Reynolds fielded a different team for the second half and the only player who remained on was trialist C, a striker who by all accounts is Belgium born. Mark O’Keeffe went close for Hibernians on 52 minutes but his effort went narrowly wide and he was denied by Waterford’s trial goalkeeper six minutes later.
Cory Galvin created the seventh goal on 69 minutes. He skipped past two tackles and squared the ball to Izzy Akinade who made no mistake from close range. Akinade then turned provider for Cory Galvin and he had no difficulty netting the eighth goal of the contest. Alan Reynolds described the outing as useful; “We have just 14 players signed at the moment and we are still doing our best to get in top quality players before the start of the season. I was in England yesterday for instance so there is a lot of hard work ahead for everyone during the coming few weeks. I was delighted with the displays of the guys we have signed. They are very good players and the supporters will see that for themselves this season.”
