Leitrim come good to see off dogged Waterford

Leitrim produced a fine second-half performance to finally shake off Waterford and get their Tailteann Cup campaign off to a winning start.

Andy Moran's side led by just a single point at the interval but came good against a battling Waterford outfit who ended the game with 14 players following Liam Fennell's dismissal for a second yellow card late on.

Leitrim got off to an impressive start when they grabbed an 0-03 lead in the opening three minutes, Ryan O'Rourke, Darragh Rooney and Tom Prior splitting the Waterford posts.

After Billy O'Keefe opened Waterford's account with a fourth-minute point, the scene was set for a nip-and-tuck encounter up to break.

Jason Curry converted a free eight minutes in to cut the gap to one before Waterford goalkeeper Aaron Beresford denied Rooney a goal two minutes later.

Leitrim extended their advantage to three points by the 16th minute after Rooney and O'Rourke shot over, but Waterford stayed right in contention as Tom O'Connell and Stephen Curry answered with a point apiece during the next two minutes.

Leitrim responded to double their lead by the 28-minute mark with two O'Rourke points and one from Pearce Dolan.

Back Waterford came though to get within one thanks to scores from Tholom Guiry, Liam Fennell and Stephen Curry.

Before the interval Leitrim's Rooney and Waterford's Stephen Curry traded points at opposite ends to leave the home side with a 0-09 to 0-08 interval lead.

After the restart, Waterford goalkeeper Beresford pulled off a top-drawer save when he deflected a Barry McNulty goal-bound effort out for a '45.

Following that, Leitrim surged to extend their advantage to six points over the next 14 minutes with goalkeeper Niall O'Donnell putting over two '45s while O'Rourke, Aidan