Waterford boss Liam Cahill has expressed disappointment at the size of the travelling support as his side slipped to defeat against Limerick.
A crowd of 27,488 turned out at the TUS Gaelic Grounds for the second round Munster SHC tie but the vast majority of those were backing the home side, with the Waterford support conspicuous by its absence save for a cohort in the Mackey Stand which found its voice as they rallied late on before slipping to a three-point defeat.
“If I’m being really honest I thought there’d be more of them there,” Cahill admitted. “When we came in on the bus the colour just wasn’t there and we kind of had a feeling that the Waterford people didn’t travel.
“Hopefully now they’ll get behind this team because they have something to look forward to with this group of players if they get in behind them and support them.
Waterford looked like they might snatch a victory coming down the stretch after two quick-fire goals saw a seven-point deficit reduced to the minimum though Limerick closed out the game with the last two points.
“Did we really deserve it over the hour?” Cahill wondered. “I’m not 100% sure. My initial feeling is we probably didn’t if we did have to sneak something.
“Look, this Limerick team, it’s going to be very hard to try and unlock them, as to what the strategy is to beat them. They’re a very decent outfit.
The Tipperary native lamented his side’s wastefulness, saying: “You can’t afford to be butchering chances the way we were doing, you just can’t against the top class opposition.
“You can’t afford to be doing that. When you bring the ball into contact with this Limerick team they just dominate you and we did that on a couple of vital occasions where we brought the ball into contact and lost it and it was turned over and them turnovers are big here with a massive Limerick crowd in their home ground. They had a big bearing on the game as the game progressed.
“But look, Limerick were minus Cian Lynch after whatever, a few minutes, minus Kyle Hayes today, Peter Casey, Seamus Flanagan, when all them come back it’s another headache again, that’s if we do get an opportunity to meet them.
“We’ve to try and park it as quick as we can now and see can we get ready for Cork in three weeks’ time.”
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