Timmy Hammersley accounted for all but two points of Waterford IT's tally as they came from five points down to beat University of Limerick in yesterday's Fitzgibbon Cup semi-final at Dangan.

Waterford IT 1-15
UL 0-14

The Tipperary ace scored an astonishing 1-13 to steer Waterford into their fifth final in eight years. But they looked to be in serious trouble when Offaly's Shane Dooley hit his fifth point a minute after the restart to put UL 0-10 to 0-5 ahead.

But it was all about Hammersley after that as the corner forward fired over three points before scoring the only goal to give the south-easterners a 1-8 to 0-10 lead after 40 minutes.

Dooley kept last year's beaten finalists UL in touch with some excellent free-taking and the sides were level on 1-10 to 0-13 with 12 minutes remaining in a game where WIT's Noel Connors lined out against his brother Tommy.

UL then took the lead when Tullamore man Dooley restored their lead from a 70-metre free, but after Hammersley had levelled four minutes from time, substitute Brian O'Meara put WIT back in front and they went on to seal a place in today's final against hosts NUIG courtesy of three more pointed frees from Hammersley.

UL were the better team in the first half and led by 0-9 to 0-5 at the interval thanks to scores from Seamus Hickey, Tommy Connors, Brian Carroll, Dooley and Matthew Ruth, but they failed to cope with the brilliance of Clonoulty-Rossmore clubman Hammersley after the restart.

SCORERS - Waterford IT: T Hammersley 1-13 (0-11f), B O'Meara 0-2. UL: S Dooley 0-9 (0-7f, 0-1 sideline), S Hickey, T Connors, B Carroll, A Quinn, M Ruth 0-1 each.

Waterford IT - A Power; B Kenny, S Fives, N Connors; W Hutchinson, E Barrett, PJ Rowe; W O'Dwyer, M Molloy; F O'Leary, K Reade, R Good; T Hammersley, K Grehan, R McLoughney. Subs: R McCarthy for O'Dwyer (34), B O'Meara for Reade (36), B Johnson for Molloy (43), S Power for Good (55).

University of Limerick - T Lowry; P Stapleton, M Malone, C Fogarty; K Joyce, J Devane, S Hickey; M Walsh, N O Murchu; T Connors, R O'Dwyer, B Carroll; A Quinn, M Ruth, S Dooley. Subs: D Hayden for Joyce (48), P O Murchu for Quinn (50), M Heffernan for N O Murchu (53), D Burke for Ruth (55). Tweet

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