- Adrian Flanagan
- Sun, Jul 14 2013
It somehow finished scoreless at the RSC on Friday night as Waterford United and Mervue United played out a draw that the home side will be wondering how they didn't win as they were the better side throughout the game.
The home side had two goals disallowed during the course of a first half that was controlled by them in totality. New signing Conor Meade had a header ruled out on two minutes for offside and the same player had another effort harshly ruled out by an offside flag on 13 minutes.
It was Meade that was again in the thick of the action on 28 minutes when he cut in from the left but his angled effort was superbly kept out by a smart save from Conor Gleeson before Philip Drohan went clear for the home side but he fired wide of the advancing Gleeson's right hand post.
The second half failed to see the home side offer the same intensity and it was their goalkeeper Chip Sanders that came to his sides rescue on 69 minutes to deny Michael Duffy before Ryan Manning also went close as Mervue upped their game.
Sanders produced another two brilliant saves on 79 minutes when he somehow kept out a close range effort from Gary Shanahan before pulling a stop out of the top drawer from the resulting corner kick when Ryan Manning's right-wing corner kick found the head of Duffy but his header was superbly tipped over.
Marco Chindea, in his first game for Waterford, should have won the game for his side on 87 minutes when he raced one on one with keeper Gleeson after latching onto a through ball from Jack Doherty but he shot straight at the visiting netminder as the hosts had to settle for a share of the spoils.
Waterford United: Chip Sanders; Conor Whittle, John Frost (Ben Ryan '79), Gavin Kavanagh, Seamus Long, Kevin O'Connor, Philip Drohan (Jack Doherty '46), Paddy Barrett, Conor Meade, Vinny Sullivan, Paul Quilty (Marco Chindea '65).
Subs not used: Gavin O'Donovan, Francis Rockett, Conor Coad, peter Higgins.
Mervue United: Conor Gleeson, Michael McSweeney, Marc Ludden, Ross Kenny, Martin Conneely, Gary Curran, Gary Shanahan, Noel Varley, Michael Duffy (Brendan Lavelle '87), Ryan Manning, Jason Molloy.
Subs not used: Conor O'Malley, Joe Woods, Kenny Farrell, Alex Lee, Gary Kelly.
Referee: Rhona Daly (Roscommon).
Attendance: 343
extratime.ie man of the match: Kevin O'Connor (Waterford United).
