John Kiely credited Limerick’s composure as they finished strongly to hold off Waterford.
Kiely’s charges appeared to be cruising to a second successive victory when leading by seven points with as many minutes of normal time remaining but two Waterford goals rocked them before the Munster and All-Ireland champions steadied with points from Pat Ryan and Diarmaid Byrnes.
The Limerick boss was also encouraged by the depth of his squad as they secured the victory despite losing Cian Lynch early on and having started without Kyle Hayes and Seamus Flanagan.
He said: “Cian getting injured, you have to reset and go again. Cathal (O’Neill) came off the bench and did a great job for us.
“We got a significant impact off our bench now for the two games thus far which has been very, very pleasing. We put a bit of daylight, I think we were six or seven points up and they got two goals quickly which can rock a team.
“But this team is very experienced now and when teams have their purple patch and make it count like that, I'd back our guys to keep a cool head and to be able to cope with that. That's exactly what they did.
“They didn't panic, they kept doing the right thing with the ball, they kept trying to play it through the lines and get it to the next man on. They fought really valiantly. To win dirty ball in the last four or five minutes.
“We created the last four scoring chances. I know we didn't convert them but we created them. We should have seen it out by three or four but we'll take what we got.”
On the nature of Lynch’s injury, Kiely said: “It's a hamstring most likely. We'll have to wait and see.”
Limerick now have a two-week break before facing Tipperary at home and Kiely couldn’t be sure whether Hayes and Flanagan will be available for selection by then.
“We'll have to wait and see who's able to get back on the training field for at least two sessions before the Tipp game.
“At the very least they have to be back on the pitch by next Saturday night. So we'll give them another week.
“We have a week so we'll try get them on the pitch hopefully next Saturday night and we'll see where they go from there.
“We're not going to take any chances with fellas at this stage of the season. It's a short season as it is, so you could take a chance and he could miss a very substantial and important part of the season. So for us it's about ensuring that whoever togs out on the day is fit and healthy.”
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