Waterford produced a dominant display at Corrigan Park on Sunday to romp to an impressive 18-point win over Antrim.
The Déise made good use of the elements in the first period to build a 16-point wind and managed the game well in the second with Antrim never really threatened to get back into it.
Peter Queally was able to reintroduce a number of returning players including Stephen Bennett and Iarlaith Daly who made big impacts, but in truth, they were on top from start to finish as their week-on-week improvement continues.
It was a disappointing display from Davy Fitzgerald's men who were out-hustled and out-muscled as the visitors came at them with intensity and the result now leaves them in a precarious position in the battle to avoid the drop.
Playing with an extremely strong wind at their backs, Waterford immediately set about building a big lead and had two points on the board within the opening minute.
The lead was three with 10 played when they grabbed their first goal as a superb poc-out from Billy Nolan found Connor Prunty in stride with the ball worked to Kevin Mahony to crack home.
Their second major came six minutes later and from a Stephen Bennett penalty, awarded as he was adjudged to have been clipped outside the area, but deemed a goalscoring opportunity denied and Keelan Molloy would spend 10 minutes in the sin-bin to compound matters.
The scores flowed for Waterford who were lording it around the middle with Jamie Barron and Dessie Hutchinson hitting some beauties, as Antrim only had a couple of James McNaughton frees to show until late in the half when Seaan Elliott had a sight of goal but shot over, yet it was the visitors with a commanding 2-14 to 0-04 lead.
Antrim made a decent start to the second period with the first four points including one from substitute Eoin O'Neill to suggest a fightback was possible, but were unable to sustain the momentum with Waterford adapting to playing into the gale, rattling off four of their own to restore to 16-point gap going into the final quarter.
They could have had a third goal only for the crossbar denying Hutchinson, but the game was long decided and petered out late with Waterford home and hosed as they cracked over some good scores through Bennett to cap a fine afternoon.
Antrim: Ryan Elliott; Eoin McFerran, Rory McCloskey, Stephen Rooney; Joe Maskey, Eoghan Campbell, Conall Bohill; Nigel Elliott, Seaan Elliott (0-01); Paul Boyle, Ryan McCambridge, Keelan Molloy (0-02); Joseph McLaughlin, James McNaughton (0-06, 6f), Niall O'Connor.
Subs: Eoin O'Neill (0-01) for S Elliott (HT), Cormac McKeown for P Boyle (49), Aodhán McGarry for J McLaughlin (58), Gerard Walsh (0-01f) for K Molloy (60), Keelan Molloy for R McCambridge (62).
Black card: K Molloy (16-26)
Waterford: Billy Nolan; Conor Ryan, Conor Prunty (0-02), Iarlaith Daly; Michael Kiely (0-01), Mark Fitzgerald (0-01), Paddy Leavey; Jack Prendergast, Conor Sheahan; Padraig Fitzgerald (0-04, 3f), Jamie Barron (0-03), Charlie Treen (0-02); Kevin Mahony (1-00), Stephen Bennettt (1-04, 1-0 pen, 0-01f), Dessie Hutchinson (0-04).
Subs: Kieran Bennett (0-01) for Padraig Fitzgerald (44), Peter Hogan (0-01) for J Pendergast (44), Patrick Curran (0-01f) for C Treen (62), Sean Walsh for S Bennett (65), Gavin Fives for C Prunty (67)
Referee: Caymon Flynn (Westmeath)
