Premier league leaders Waterford Crystal were visitors for the Munster cup today .
Right from the kick off Crystal got into their rhythm by trying to use the width of the pitch to disrupt our defence but got little joy in the opening minutes.
However when one of our attacks was broken up the loose ball was moved quickly forward and when their winger got in behind he pulled the ball back for the inrushing striker to blast home from close range.
Credit to our lads they defended superbly for the remainder of the half and limited the visitors to long range efforts and corners.
Our midfield done Trojan work breaking up Crystal attacks and we looked threathening at times with oul Dan, Jack and Rudi linking up well in attack .
The lads grew in confidence from their first half display and started the second period on the front foot with plenty of positive play.
Too positive at times as we got caught trying to pass our way out of trouble in defence and a loose ball was pounced on by an attacker and the resulting tackle was deemed to have been a foul in the box. Although the penalty was well struck Darragh was equal to it and pushed it away to safety . We steadied the ship and had some joy in the middle of the pitch with some great passages of play but unfortunately we didn’t create too many clear chances.
As the legs and minds tired after the hour mark the opposition punished a lapse in concentration with a goal and the third followed within a few minutes to put the game beyond us. Although the game was gone at this stage it allowed us the oppourtunity to give more youngsters the chance to get a bit of experience to improve and the three chaps acquitted themselves very well.
Crystal added 2 more goals on the break before the 80th minute for a 5 nil victory.
In fairness to the young lads they plugged away in the final few minutes to try and salvage a goal.
A dissapointing scoreline given the fantastic effort from all involved but plenty of positives to take away from the game .
I’m certain the experience gained over last two matches against higher placed opposition will be invaluable to the lads throughout the rest of the season.