A Déise Double at Croke Park could be on the cards after brilliant Waterford ease past Leitrim

A visit for me to Dungarvan usually involves sticking my head inside the Boston Barbers and usually results in the worlds wrongs been put right with Laura, Ann Marie and Liam if of course they are not busy at the time.

An early visit to Dungarvan yesterday morning was no different.

Before leaving I was told “Butty, Waterford Ladies are going to win big today, I’m telling you”.

While I was confident Waterford would beat the Connacht Champions in the first of a double header at the Gaelic Grounds in Limerick, for me a one point win would be enough. After all semi finals are for winning. The manner they are won and the margin of victory is not always important.

I for one are not going to hide my delight that Waterford are through to a first All-Ireland Final sine 2012 and a third since 2010, but I am rather surprise with the winning margin of eleven points, and do you know what, if you have not seen the game be it at the ground itself or on the TV, the margin of victory could have been a lot more and would have been but for the impressive Michelle Guckian in the Leitrim goal who made at least three excellent saves in this game to deny Waterford the chance of having extra green flags waved.

For Waterford, Aileen Wall was named the Player of the Match. It was no surprise that the brilliant Ballymacarbry player won the award.

If you care to check my Facebook or Twitter account feed (both are thomaskeane1973) midway through the Second half I felt she was going to be the winner of the award.

She was outstanding in all she did on the day. She was a constant thorn in the sides of the Leitrim defence and even when she was not in a position to score herself, she was able to pick out players who were in a better position, as was borne out mid way through the second half when she laid off an inch perfect pass to Michelle Ryan to register Waterford’s second goal of the game.

While Aileen was the Player of the Game she had plenty of others that pushed her all the way.

All year long Katie Hannon is superb between the posts for Waterford and she had another excellent performance here.

Sinead Ryan and Maria Delahunty have made a massive contribution this year since returning to the panel and they too were outstanding, accounting for 0-5 and 0-6 respectfully, while others to impress a lot were the experienced duo of Elaine Power and Linda Wall.

For Leitrim, Michelle Guckian had a great game for her side and the margin of defeat for her side would be far higher without her, while Áine Tighe who hit 3-5 of 4-7 against Clare in the quarter finals two weeks earlier was again to be her sides top scorer in this game, finishing with 2-4 and without her you would have to wonder where the scores would have come from.

Waterford made all the early running in this game. Straight from the off they attacked the Leitrim goal.

Inside 162 seconds of the game starting, Waterford had three chances to raise green flags, but resulted in none.

Sinead Ryan drew the first of Michelle Guckian’s saves on two minutes and from the rebound the same player shot wide. Just 42 seconds later Aileen Wall tore the Leitrim defence apart but she saw here shot go narrowly wide.

The first score of the game came with just under five minutes played.

Waterford were attacking the Ennis end of the ground, but Leitrim managed to intercept the ball and attack the city end of the ground. The ball was worked into the dangerous Áine Tighe who soccer style soccer style touched the ball to the right of the advancing Katie Hannon with her right leg and after rounding the Ballyduff player she poked home to an empty net with her left leg.

After the game Player of the Match Aileen Wall in an interview said the plan was that should the side concede a goal they would try and get one back as soon as possible afterwards and this is exactly what happened.

The ball was quickly worked up the field with Emma Murray and Louise Ryan combining to put Aileen Wall through on goal and once on a one on one situation with Michelle Guckian she made no mistake in planting the ball in the Leitrim net to level matters.

Áine Tighe from a free on ten minutes and Dearbhaile Beirne five minutes later followed up with points for Leitrim, but Waterford refused to panic.

Kerry in the past might have a deadly kicker of a placed ball in Maurice Fitzgerald but this present Waterford side are equally as fortunate to have an outstanding kicker of a placed ball in Maria Delahunty.

The Abbeyside player with just under fourteen minutes of the first half remaining put over a ’45 to leave the minimum between the sides.

Nine minutes from time Waterford had another chance to raise a green flag.

The brilliant Maria Delahunty cut in from the Waterford right hand side of the field and played an outstanding pass across the Leitrim goal to Grainne Kenneally on the left hand side of the field and doing as any footballer of note would do, the Ballyduff player opted to try and palm the ball to the net rather than catch and kick it, giving the Leitrim backs time to close her down, but Michelle Guckian not for the first time was in the right place at the right time to keep the Waterford attack at bay.

The impressive Sinead Ryan with just ninety seconds remaining on the clock slotted over a free to level matters on the scoreboard for the second time in the game and just one minute later, the lethal Ballymacarbry player slotted over to give Waterford the lead for the first time.

Whatever was said in the Waterford dressing rooms at the break had a desired result as Waterford came out for the second half the better of the two sides by some distance.

Within ninety second of the restart Maria Delahunty gave Waterford a 1-4 to 1-2 advantage on the score board and the same player followed up with another free two minutes later.

Aileen Wall, Sinead Ryan and Elaine Power all had points on the scoreboard as well in the opening six minutes of the second half as Waterford took a 1-8 to 1-2 lead, one which Waterford were full value for.

Leitrim’s first score of the second half came eight minutes into the half when Aine Tighe registered her third score of the game.

Seconds later, the Connacht side attempted their look for a second goal in this game, but the brilliant Katie Hannon was on hand to keep Niamh Tighe’s effort out and from the rebound the same player saw her goal bound effort taken off the line and cleared to safety by Emma Murray.

Aileen Wall hit another point for Waterford before Katie Hannon was again called into action, the Ballyduff player doing brilliant once more to keep Dearbhaile Beirne’s effort out on forty minutes.

Áine Tighe and Sinead Ryan swapped scores before Waterford hit a second goal with thirteen minutes of the half played.

Caoimhe McGrath and Louise Ryan combined for the latter to play a long ball into Aileen Wall who not for the first time ran at the Leitrim defence and as she neared the Leitrim goal she spotted Michelle Ryan in a central position and fist passed the ball to her and the towering Ballymacarbry player made no mistake in palming the ball past Michelle Guckian.

Waterford now lead 2-10 to 1-4 and the game was all but over as a contest.

Sinead Ryan followed up with a free for Waterford after which Grainne Kenneally hit possibly the score of the match after she was found with a pass from Caoimhe McGrath.

Another Maria Delahunty point with just over thirteen and a half minutes left to play put Waterford 2-13 to 1-4 up after which Leitrim had their best patch in the game.

Less than a minute after Maria Delahunty’s score Anna Conlon, Dearbhaile Beirne and Áine Tighe were all involved in a movement that saw the latter hit her second and her sides second goal of the game.

Michelle Heslin and Áine Tighe followed up with points with nine minutes to still to play, but this was as good as it got for Leitrim as they failed to score after this.

Waterford in the final minutes of the game as they were right throughout the second half continued to prove to be the better of the two sides, with the subs that were brought in during the second half doing their chances of winning a place in the Starting team for the All-Ireland Final against Kildare or Offaly on September 27 no harm.

Aileen Wall from an Elaine Power pass with just under seven minutes to play extended Waterford’s lead after which Michelle Guckian was again called into action this time to deny Maria Delahunty the chance of a goal with five minutes remaining.

The Abbeyside player hit Waterford’s next two scores, the first after she was picked out with a good pass from Aoife Murray and with the last attack of the game Caoimhe McGrath found Michelle Ryan who put the ball between the uprights to give Waterford an eleven point winning margin.

Waterford now await the winners of next Saturday’s semi final between Kildare and Offaly in the All-Ireland Final.

It may be a commentators curse here, but you would expect Kildare having played two divisions above the midlander’s in the league and having beaten them in the Leinster Final to win the second semi final.

Whichever side does come out on top, Waterford will not have it easy in the All-Ireland Final, but they will travel to Croke Park a confident side and in the knowledge that as the year is progressing the side are getting better with each game they play.

WATERFORD; Katie Hannon; Mairead Wall, Michelle McGrath, Linda Wall; Elaine Power, Megan Dunford, Louise Ryan; Karen McGrath, Emma Murray; Grainne Kenneally, Maria Delahunty, Aileen Wall; Hannah Landers, Sinead Ryan, Mary Foley. Subs: Michelle Ryan for Hannah Landers (37), Caoimhe McGrath for Mary Foley (40), Nicola Fennell for Louise Ryan, Aoife Murray for Sinead Ryan (55), Nora Dunphy for Mairead Wall (58).

Scorers: Maria Delahunty 0-6 (2f, 1 45), Aileen Wall 1-3, Sinead Ryan 0-5 (2f), Michelle Ryan 1-1, Elaine Power, Grainne Kenneally 0-1 each.

LEITRIM: Michelle Guckian; Claire Beirne, Mairead Stenson, Róisín McHugh; Melissa Hewitt, Sharon Kerrigan, Áine Heslin; Sarah McLoughlin, Anna Conlon; Deirdre Ward, Áine Tighe, Loraine Brennan; Dearbhaile Beirne, Niamh Tighe, Carla LeGuen. Subs: Michelle Heslin for Áine Heslin (41), Emma Guckian for Carla LeGuen (47).

Scorers: Áine Tighe 2-4 (0-2f), Michelle Heslin, Dearbhaile Beirne 0-1 each.

Referee: Stephen McNulty (Wicklow).