An outstanding return of 2-13 by Waterford full forward Eoin Kelly helped the Deises see off the challenge of a determined Offaly side in this All-Ireland qualifier at Thurles. Waterford 2-18 Offaly 0-18 Kelly was magnificent throughout, and Waterford did enough to get through to the quarter-final, although a worrying factor for manager Davy Fitzgerald will be the fact that the rest of his forwards only contributed five points between them. James Nagle made his first championship start for Waterford. The UCC student, who made a big impression following his introduction against Antrim in the last round, partnered Michael 'Brick' Walsh at midfield as Dave Bennett made way. Seamus Prendergast returned at wing forward after missing the Antrim game through injury to the exclusion of All-Star Stephen Molumphy. In a positional change, Dan Shanahan switched from full forward to wing forward with Eoin Kelly going in the opposite direction, while Ken McGrath continued at full back where he will have the task of marking the in-form Joe Bergin. Offaly named the same side that started against Limerick, which was no big surprise given the manner of the performance that the Faithful County produced last Saturday, but the big question was, could they repeat that. However, Paul Cleary was a late inclusion for Diarmuid Horan who was ruled out through injury. Waterford opened the scoring within the first 30 second as John Mullane got out on front of the defence and tapped over before Eoin Kelly added a second just a minute later. Offaly found themselves down by five points soon after as a flick across the goal by Mullane was misjudged by goalkeeper Brian Mullins and Eoin Kelly tapped into an empty net. Mullane was causing the Offaly defence all sorts of problems and he brought an excellent save out of Mullins at the expense of a '65, which was converted by Kelly. The same player had the next score of the match from a placed ball after a foul on Eoin McGrath and Offaly looked to be in trouble in the full back line, who desperately needed to get into the match. They finally got off the mark through a Brian Carroll free after seven and a half minutes. Then Derek Molloy fired over a fine point from wide on the left as the Faithful began to settle down. Cleary added another point for Offaly to leave it 1-4 to 0-3 after 10 minutes. Midfielder Brendan Murphy was next to get on the scoresheet as the Leinster side closed the gap even further, before Mullane hit a bad wide for Waterford. Molloy fielded a great ball and then was brought down by Tony Browne, who received a yellow card for his indiscretion and Carroll converted the resultant free. And then he scored the next one from play to leave a point between the sides. Rory Hanniffy drew the sides level after a fine run down the right, he tapped the sliothar over the bar and at this stage Waterford had gone ten minutes since their last score. Offaly took the lead when Shane Dooley was fouled and Carroll stood up to knock over am easy free as many started to believe that the Faithful County's win over Limerick was not a fluke, but then disaster struck when Kelly struck for his second goal, giving Mullins no chance. Conor Hernon replaced Michael Verney in the 23rd minute, as Joe Dooley looked to shore up his full back line. Another Carroll free left a point between the sides, but from the puck out Dan Shanahan gathered the sliothar fed Mullane, who in turn lay off to Kelly and the full forward tapped over to bring his tally for the afternoon to 2-3. The provider then turned scorer as Mullane knocked over a point to make it 2-6 to 0-9 points with nine minutes to go to half time. Hanniffy got his second point of the afternoon as they kept working hard particularly in midfield. Referee Michael Haverty seem to be letting nothing go as he gave a few dubious frees, one of which was a 20 metre free that Kelly hit the crossbar with before the defence snuffed out the rebound. Carroll hit his sixth point of the afternoon from another free to bring it back to a one-point match at half time, 2-6 to 0-11. Once again it was Carroll who kept his side in touch with another point, this time from play, while Dooley put Offaly in front after two minutes of the second half was played. Ger Oakley was book for a foul on Eoin McGrath when it looked as if the two players collided going for a 50/50 ball and Kelly converted another free. Molloy, who was having a very good game, dodged a few tackles before laying off to Murphy and the midfielder put Offaly in front once again. At the other end Kelly was having an outstanding match and yet again he found his range form play way out the field. Then a magnificent point for Offaly was cancelled out by Kelly, who kept Waterford in touch with another converted free. If Kelly was the driving force behind Waterford, the Carroll was certainly Offaly's main man as he hit his eighth point from a placed ball to leave the scoreline 0-16 to 2-9 in the Faithful's favour. It was becoming like the Kelly v. Carroll as the former brought the sides level for a sixth time after 50 minutes and the same man put the Decies in front with a score of sublime quality as he hit the sliothar over his shoulder from wide on the right. He then hit two frees from 70 metres to put three between the sides and already this was a man-of-the-match performance by the Passage clubman as he had registered 2-10. Carroll was not to be outdone and he tapped over from 20 metres, as Offaly were still very much in the match. A mistake by Mullins cost Offaly a 65 surprisingly Kelly hit it wide. He made it up for it with the score of the match soon after. Kelly gathered a high ball, turned, took one look at the goals and fired over from midfield. A point by substitute Stephen Molumphy point cancelled out a similar score from Joe Bergin for Offaly, but Waterford responded through Seamus Prendergast to leave four between the sides as the clock reached 66 minutes. Offaly needed a goal, but it was not to be as Kelly hit two frees to put six points between the sides as the game entered injury time. Waterford - C Hennessy; E Murphy, K McGrath, D Prendergast; S O'Sullivan, T Browne, J Kennedy; M Walsh, J Nagle; D Shanahan, G Hurney, S Prendergast (0-1); E McGrath (0-1), E Kelly (2-13), J Mullane (0-2). Subs - B Phelan for Kennedy, S Molumphy (0-1) for Hurney, P Flynn for Nagle, D Bennett for E McGrath. Offaly -B Mullins; D Franks (0-01), D Kenny, M Verney; K Brady, G Oakley, P Cleary (0-1); B Murphy (0-2), R Hanniffy (0-2); S Dooley (0-1), J Brady, D Molloy (0-1); B Carroll (0-9), J Bergin (0-01), D Currams. Subs - C Hernon for Verney, C Mahon for Currams, J Rigney for Hernon. Ref - M Haverty (Galway). Tweet

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