The mercurial Maurice Shanhan registered 1-12 as Waterford defeated Dublin by 2-21 to 1-19 in a hard-fought contest at Thurles.

The winners pulled away in the second half, with Shanahan pulling the strings and young Shane Bennett also influential: the teenager blasted home his side's opening major in the 37th minute and also laid off the pass for Shanahan's three-pointer four minutes from time. Centre back Austin Gleeson was also superb.

Dublin, who had Liam Rushe shown a straight red card deep into stoppage time, battled hard and were level on nine occasions. Mark Schutte's goal at the midway stage in the second half offered them a potential lifeline but Na Deise kicked on for a great victory.

Two late Danny Sutcliffe points assured the determined Dubs of a deserved 0-13 to 0-12 half-time lead. The sides had been level on eight occasions during that opening period, with Waterford overly-dependent on the accuracy of Shanahan, who fired eight of their first-half scores.

The sides were level five times during the opening 14 minutes before Colin Dunford's second point made it 0-7 to 0-6 in favour of the beaten Munster finalists.

The favourites led by three points to two after five minutes, with Shanahan twice on target and Dunford adding their third; Dubs defender Chris Crummey opened the scoring and Shutte reduced the gap to one.

Paul Ryan (free) and Shanahan ('65') traded scores before points from Niall McMorrow and Ryan O'Dwyer edged the Dubs back in front. The Metropolitans still led by one after twelve minutes following an exchange between Shanahan (free) and O'Callaghan but Gleeson raided forward to make it 0-6 apiece.

Dunford's second and Shanahan's fifth had Derek McGrath's men two to the good at the midway stage in the first half; Sutcliffe replied and Shanahan slotted another free on 20 minutes: 0-9 to 0-7. Ryan (free) and O'Callaghan soon had the teams level for the sixth time.

Captain Kevin Moran and Shanahan (free) pointed either side of a second O'Dwyer score and Shanahan notched his eighth point from eight attempts (free) to double the difference three minutes from the short whistle - 0-12 to 0-10.

But the Dubs reeled off three unanswered points before the short whistle - via Ryan (free) and Sutcliffe (2) to give the odds-on favourites plenty to ponder.

Waterford outscored Dublin by 1-4 to 0-1 in the first ten minutes of the second half to take control of the game.

Moran tied the scores up a minute after the restart before Shane Bennett took a great pass from Shanahan in the 37th minute and smashed the sliothar first-time off the deck into the top left corner of the Dublin net: 1-13 to 0-13! A magnificent game-changing score.

Gleeson followed up with a super solo point and Shanahan's brace brought his tally to 0-10 after the powerful Schutte had notched a Dublin score - 1-16 to 0-14 with eight minutes played in the second half. Dillon's point after a clever Shanahan free infield left six between them and Ryan replied.

Shanahan converted another free on 50 minutes and Gleeson fired one over from the left wing to stretch the gap to seven. But the Dubs came back into contention when Schutte's rocket flew to the roof of the net off Stephen O'Keefe's hurl in the 53rd minute to reduce the arrears to a much more manageable four points, 1-19 to 1-15.

A buzz went around the stadium when Gleeson chipped an exquisite sideline cut between the posts from huge distance; Dublin replied quickly via O'Callaghan and Shanahan and Ryan exchanged frees to leave four between them with six minutes remaining.

Shanahan settled the contest when he planted an unstoppable shot into the bottom right corner of the Dublin net on 66 minutes at the end of a magnificent team move that went the full length of the pitch to leave seven points between the teams.

Sub David Treacy clipped over a couple of consolation points and Dublin's day finished on a sour note when Rushe received a straight red for striking Shanahan across the face(guard).

Waterford - S O'Keeffe; S Fives, B Coughlan, N Connors; D Fives, T de Burca, Philip Mahony; K Moran (0-2), J Barron; Shane Bennett (1-0), A Gleeson (0-4, 1sl), J Dillon (0-1); M Shanahan (1-12, 0-9f, 0-2'65), M Walsh, C Dunford (0-2). Subs: S Daniels for N Connors, P Curran for C Dunford, T Devine for J Dillon, Stephen Bennett for Shane Bennett, E Barrett for A Gleeson.

Dublin - G Maguire; S Barrett, C O'Callaghan, P Schutte; C Crummey (0-1), L Rushe, J Boland; J McCaffrey, N McMorrow (0-1); P Ryan (0-5f), D Sutcliffe (0-3), R O'Dwyer (0-2); D O'Callaghan (0-3), C Keaney, M Schutte (1-2). Subs: P Kelly for S Barrett, C Boland for N McMorrow, D Treacy (0-2, 1'65) for P Ryan, E Dillon for C Keaney, O O'Rourke for D Sutcliffe.

Referee - J Ryan.

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