Waterford breeze past Antrim in dominant display

Waterford produced a dominant display at Corrigan Park on Sunday to romp to an impressive 18-point win over Antrim.

The Déise made good use of the elements in the first period to build a 16-point wind and managed the game well in the second with Antrim never really threatened to get back into it.

Peter Queally was able to reintroduce a number of returning players including Stephen Bennett and Iarlaith Daly who made big impacts, but in truth, they were on top from start to finish as their week-on-week improvement continues.

It was a disappointing display from Davy Fitzgerald's men who were out-hustled and out-muscled as the visitors came at them with intensity and the result now leaves them in a precarious position in the battle to avoid the drop.

Playing with an extremely strong wind at their backs, Waterford immediately set about building a big lead and had two points on the board within the opening minute.

The lead was three with 10 played when they grabbed their first goal as a superb poc-out from Billy Nolan found Connor Prunty in stride with the ball worked to Kevin Mahony to crack home.

Their second major came six minutes later and from a Stephen Bennett penalty, awarded as he was adjudged to have been clipped outside the area, but deemed a goalscoring opportunity denied and Keelan Molloy would spend 10 minutes in the sin-bin to compound matters.

The scores flowed for Waterford who were lording it around the middle with Jamie Barron and Dessie Hutchinson hitting some beauties, as Antrim only had a couple of James McNaughton frees to show until late in the half when Seaan Elliott had a sight of goal but shot over, yet it was the visitors with a commanding 2-14 to 0-04 lead.

Antrim made a decent start to the second period