Sligo Rovers captain Jamie MacKenzie scored a second own goal in two games to gift ten-man Waterford United a precious point in a 1-1 draw at The Showgrounds.
The home side, bossed by new manager Paul Cook for the first time, scored after just three minutes and had an extra man for almost an hour, but failed to overcome the league's bottom club.
The home side showed three changes from the team hammered by St Patrick's Athletic last time out, with Choice Aisien, Keith Foy and Zoltan Vasas returning and Conor O'Grady missing out through injury.
Waterford made five changes to the side beaten by Longford Town, with the injured Alan Reynolds among the absentees.
Rovers enjoyed a great start with Bosnian Fahrudin Kuduzovic rattling the net after just three minutes.
It came about after Jason McCartney's pass released recalled striker Choice Aisien into the area, and though Stephen Cooling slid in to tackle, the ball bounced nicely for Kuduzovic, who smashed home his third of the season from six yards out.
Waterford's hopes of ending a run of six straight defeats were further dented as Ray Scully was shown red on 35 minutes, after being harshly booked for the second time after taking down Keith Foy.
Rovers could have further punished their guests on 40 minutes when Kuduzovic released Raffaele Cretaro, but keeper Dean Delaney dived at the winger’s feet and made the save.
Waterford threw Dave Warren on for Alan Mulcahy before the break to try and force their way into a game that was rapidly slipping away from them.
They lost Cooling to injury early in the second-half, but the Suir-siders enjoyed their most productive spell in the minutes that followed.
Brush was forced to claw the ball out from under his crossbar when Daryl Kavanagh's cross swung inwards, and from the corner that followed, substitute Shane Harte picked out Robbie Hedderman, but he could not direct his header goalwards.
But Waterford got back into it with 20 minutes left. Harte swung in a free from the right, and though Brush palmed away Kenny Browne’s powerful shot, the rebound bounced off the unfortunate MacKenzie and back into the net.
This finally sparked Rovers into life and Aisien went close from the edge of the box, before Delaney was forced to pull off an excellent save to deny Cretaro from point-blank range.
The excellent Delaney also denied Kuduzovic and Keith Foy late on as Waterford hung on for a vital point.
Sligo Rovers: Brush, Coleman, Vasas, MacKenzie (c), Foy, Cretaro, Turner, Hughes, McCartney (Bajzdiak 64), Aisien, Kuduzovic. Subs not used: Arcaba, Kelly, Manson, Judge.
Waterford United: Delaney, Flynn, Breen, Browne, Hedderman (Brosnan 71), Scully, McCarthy, Cooling (Harte 49), Mulcahy (Warren 39), Sullivan, Kavanagh. Subs not used: Holding, Harte, Keely.
