Waterford 4-20
Antrim 1-9
(Match abandoned)

Croke Park officials are due to meet in the morning to decide if Waterford can take their place in the All-Ireland MHC semi-finals.

It follows the abandonment of today's quarter-final in Ashbourne after Antrim player Jude McCurdy suffered a serious neck injury in the closing minutes. With the Deise leading by 20 points at the time, the referee asked both teams to leave the field after an ambulance arrived at the scene and removed the Antrim youngster to hospital.

The match official then took the decision to bring a premature halt to proceedings, meaning Waterford have to wait to find out if they are through to a last four meeting with Kilkenny or if a replay will be necessitated. However, they are expected to be awarded the game given the huge margin that separated the teams at the time of the game's abandonment.

Antrim led by 0-2 to 0-1 early on, but that was as good as it got for the northerners who played second fiddle for the rest of the game. Patrick Curran brought the beaten Munster finalists level in the seventh minute and Mark O'Brien and DJ Foran had further minors before Curran raised the first green flag coming up the end of the first quarter to give Waterford a 1-4 to 0-3 lead.

Curran added four more points and Michael Harney and Mikey Kearney also found the target as the Deise took a commanding 1-11 to 0-4 lead into the interval.

It continued to be one-way traffic after the restart as Foran, Harney, Gleeson and Stephen Bennett tagged on points before the latter scored his first goal to make it 2-15 to 0-8 with 19 minutes remaining.

Antrim pulled back a goal of their own before Curran grabbed his second major midway through the half to leave Waterford perched on a 3-16 to 1-8 lead.

Kearney, Paul O'Connor and Gleeson piled on further points before Bennett's second goal arrived just before the game ended on a sad note.

Waterford - G Power; W Hahessy, K Daly, C Leamy; S O'Neill, A Gleeson (0-4, 1f), Shane Bennett; M O'Brien (0-1), M Harney (0-2); P O'Connor (0-1), C Curran, DJ Foran (0-2); Stephen Bennett (2-1, 1-0f), P Curran (2-5, 0-2f, 2'65), M Kearney (0-4). Subs: T Devine for Shane Bennett, S Hogan for O'Connor, E O'Halloran for Curran, MJ Sutton for Harney.

Antrim - C Heyden; R Diamond, G Walsh, A Orchin; D O'Hara, M Connolly, P Burke; A Delargy, C Johnson (0-3, 1f); E McFerran, D Nugent (1-2, 1-1f), C McAlister; C McNaughton (0-2f), J McCurdy (0-1), S McCaughan. Subs: C McDonnell (0-1) for McFerran, R McNulty for O'Hara, J Connolly for McNaughton.

Referee - J Heffernan. Tweet

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