Waterford FC continued their strong start to life back in the Premier Division, with a three-one victory over St. Patrick’s Athletic on Monday evening.
Head Coach Keith Long made three changes to the team that lost at Eamonn Deacy Park with Ryan Burke, Rowan McDonald, and Maleace Asamoah coming back into the side with the latter producing a player of the match display that impressed the home faithful.
After Sam Sargeant was called into action to make a top save at his near post on three minutes to deny Ruairi Keating, it was the pace of Asamoah that caused the visitors problems two minutes later as his cracking effort from just inside the area was tipped over the bar.
It wasn’t long before the opening goal was arriving on seven minutes as skipper Barry Baggley took a short corner to Asamoah, who crossed into the centre where Padraig Amond was on hand to beat keeper Marcelo Pitaluga with a fine header.
Jason McClelland brought a smart save out of Sargeant on 25 minutes as he saved at his near post before Amond had two chances to increase the lead – the first a cheeky effort when sticking out his leg to try divert a Ryan Burke effort to the net before having a clearance from keeper Pitaluga go just wide.
After two defeats on the bounce, the visitors got themselves back on level terms on 34 minutes when Brandon Kavanagh drilled a low shot across goal that saw Sam Sargeant save, but the ball broke into the path of Anto Breslin, who swept home a close-range rebound.
The Blues got their noses back in front four minutes before the break when Ryan Burke sent in a left-wing effort that wasn’t dealt with by the on-loan Liverpool keeper Marcelo Pitaluga, and Amond was on hand to fire home his fourth goal in three games from close-range.
After a tentative opening to the second-half, it was the brilliance of Maleace Asamoah that put the daylight between the teams on 70 minutes when the Fleetwood Town loanee nipped possession from Kieran Freeman on halfway before kept his composure to beat Pitaluga with a neat left-footed finish.
Amond had a chance to score his hat-trick five minutes later when he took a pass from Darragh Power on the right-side of the penalty area, but his low shot was well saved by the visiting keeper as the Blues tried to put the game to bed.
Sam Sargeant redeemed himself with a couple of excellent saves in the final ten minutes of the game as the visitors tried to set up a nervy finish as he produced two top saves to keep out efforts from Kian Leavy and a stunning one-handed save to deny Jamie Lennon two minutes from time.
Waterford FC: Sam Sargeant; Darragh Power, Kacper Radkowski, Grant Horton, Darragh Leahy, Ryan Burke, Rowan McDonald, Barry Baggley, Maleace Asamoah (Harvey Macadam ’78), Padraig Amond, Connor Parsons.
St. Patrick’s Athletic: Marcelo Pitaluga; Anto Breslin, Ryan McLaughlin (Kieran Freeman ’10) (Alex Nolan ’84), Conor Keeley (Kian Leavy ’63), Joe Redmond; Chris Forrester (Cian Kavanagh ’84), Brandon Kavanagh (Mason Melia ’63), Jason McClelland, Jamie Lennon; Ruairi Keating, Luke Turner.
Attendance: 3076
