Waterford's dreams of a first ever All-Ireland Intermediate hurling title were wrecked at Nowlan Park this evening by a fast-finishing Wexford side.
Senior footballer Ciaran Lyng flicked home a 64th-minute goal to help Wexford come from behind and steal victory. Closing points from John Roche and Pat Doran did the trick for the Models who were winning their second Intermediate final in three years.
Sadly for the Deise, their wait for their first All-Ireland hurling championship at any grade since their Under-21 success in 1992 goes on.
They led by three points in the early stages but a stuttering second half display – not helped by influential forward Mick Molumphy being forced off with a wrist injury – saw Waterford pegged back.
Conor Carey’s eighth-minute goal, which saw him hammer home with a first time pull, set Waterford on the right track and they led 1-06 to 0-08 at half-time.
Doran opened the scoring for Wexford with a second-minute free but the 19-year-old Shane Casey quickly replied at the other end and Carey’s rocket of a shot had the Munster champions leading by 1-01 to 0-01.
Wexford, who called on another footballer in Redmond Barry, struck the next five points to move 0-06 to 1-01 ahead with David Redmond, John Breen (0-02) and Doran (0-02) all on target.
A free from Casey woke Waterford from their slumber but by the 20th-minute the Deise had still not scored a point from play. One quickly followed, however, as Kenny Stafford teed up Molumphy for a fine score.
Barry replied for the Models but Waterford upped the gears for the closing minutes of the first half with points from Pat Fitzgerald and Ger Power, who linked well throughout the first 30 minutes, seeing them retake the lead.
Waterford were dominant in possession but with the backing of the wind, too many of their shots were drifting wide of the mark and they ended the half with a disappointing wides tally of eight.
Wexford had four wides in total by the half-time whistle and Doran, the son of Wexford great Tony, slammed over his fourth point of the half to finish off the scoring.
A clever sideline ball from Pa Kearney set up David Howard for the opening point of the second period, sending Waterford into a 1-07 to 0-08 lead.
The scores suddenly dried up for both sides until target man Stephen Banville created space for Doran to angle over Wexford’s ninth point.
Molumphy was then sidelined but a Nicky Jacob point seemed to steady Waterford, only for Lyng to pop up with an all-important goal just moments later.
David Redmond pumped in a long ball for Lyng to scoop to the net and put his side 1-09 to 1-08 ahead. A deflated Waterford side never really recovered as despite clocking up 13 wides, the victors had the confidence to see out the narrow win.
A third point of the evening from Casey, in reply to Roche’s effort, cut the margin again to a single point but Doran flashed a ‘65’ straight through the uprights in injury-time to register his sixth and most important point.
