AFTER a timely bye, Limerick return to action in the Munster Senior Hurling Championship with a tricky outing against Waterford at Walsh Park on Saturday at 6pm (referee: Colm Lyons, Cork).
It’s the only fixture of the competition this weekend, and the home outfit will be buoyed by a huge win over All-Ireland Champions Clare at the same venue – capacity is only around 12,000 – last weekend.
No doubt John Kiely’s side will be aiming for a significant improvement on the showing which only earned a draw with Tipperary in the opening round in Thurles.
Still, the boss was pleased to have earned a share of the spoils a fortnight ago.
“A couple of aspects we’ll be disappointed with. We conceded two goals that we won’t be happy with, that’ll make difficult viewing during the week for us. But I think our resilience and our calmness, we really stuck to the process today. We would have liked to have gotten two points, but really happy that we got one.”
Named for duty at Semple Stadium was Cathal O’Neill, but injury prevented last year’s Young Player of the Year nominee from an appearance last week and his availability for the trip to The Déise in a couple of days’ time is unclear.
Centurion Stephen Bennett (2-8) stole the show for Waterford at the weekend, but Peter Queally’s team have plenty of other scoring threats too with the likes of captain Dessie Hutchinson, Jamie Barron, Darragh Lyons, Patrick Curran, and Jack Prendergast.
In goalkeeper Billy Nolan, Limerick will not find it easy to raise green flags.
Aside from their shock opening round victory, Waterford also impressed in the easy defeat of Offaly in last month’s Division 1B League Final.
Generating momentum is valuable. “It is, it’s all about momentum,” Queally said of late.
Boss Queally knows plenty about the visitors following a recent spell on the club scene here with Kilmallock.
Limerick know only too well that a win on Suirside is crucial ahead of difficult back-to-back home fixtures against favourites Cork (May 18) and Clare (May 25).
