The Blues picked up a valuable point on the road against St. Patrick’s Athletic on Friday night in Richmond Park, as Maleace Asamoah’s first-half finish was cancelled out by Brandon Kavanagh’s second-half equaliser to share the points in the capital.
After a quiet opening with the hosts seeing most of the ball, it was the Blues who found the break-through after just thirteen minutes.
Ben McCormack, on his return to his old club, whipped in a corner from the right, with Darragh Leahy’s glancing header falling to Maleace Asamoah who flicked home at the back post to send the 300+ Waterford away support into raptures.
The hosts continued to see the majority of the ball in the first-half without ever really troubling Sam Sargeant in the Blues net.
Saints midfielder Jamie Lennon fired over from distance after 25-minutes, in what was the hosts first shot of the game.
Just after the half-hour mark, the Blues came inches away from making it two-nil. Rowan McDonald broke up the Saints play in midfield, before playing Asamoah in behind the hosts defence, who poked his effort just wide of Danny Rogers goal.
The half ended with a flurry of yellow-cards for both sides, before Padraig Amond had a chance of his own in the final minute of the half. Ben McCormack with a brilliant set-piece delivery who found Amond free in the box, but the Blues number 9 could only fire over the Pats crossbar.
The opening period of the second-half followed the pattern of the first, with Jon Daly’s side holding onto the ball yet struggling to break down the well-drilled Blues defence.
On the hour mark, the hosts made a triple change that worked exactly how Daly had hoped. Chris Forrester, Jake Mulraney & Ruairi Keating were all introduced to the action, and it was this trio who forced the equaliser.
Smart play from Keating & Mulraney, who found Forrest on the edge of the Blues box, who then had an effort on goal palmed away by Sargeant – as the ball fell to the feet of Brandon Kavanagh who fired home from close range to level the scoring.
Keith Long’s side refused to sit back and hold onto the point; with Harvey Macadam almost finding Asamoah in space inside the Saints box with twenty minutes remaining.
Both sides went at each other in the remaining minutes, but neither side could find the third goal of the game, as it finished one-all in Richmond Park.
St. Patrick’s Athletic FC: Rogers (GK); Turner, Redmond (C), Keeley, Breslin; Bolger (61′ Keating), Lennon, Kavanagh; Leavy (62′ Forrester), Melia (70′ Palmer), Nolan (62′ Mulraney).
Waterford FC: Sargeant (GK); Power, Horton, Leahy (C), McCourt; McDonald, Macadam, McCormack (77′ Akachukwu); Asamoah (71′ Pattison), Amond, Parsons (McMenamy).
Attendance: 4,376.