The battle of the league's leading scorers ended level, with Pierrot cancelling out Coughlan’s goal in a thrilling playoff first leg.

Waterford will be happy to return home knowing victory will send them into the playoff final, but Athlone showed great battle to come back from 1-0 down against a solid Waterford defence. 

Coughlan showed great quality to give the Blues the lead just after the break, but Pierrot produced a sublime finish of his own to give Athlone the leveller with ten minutes to go. 

Waterford will feel very hard done by not to have a chance from the spot to win the game in the closing stages, after Duffy took down Parsons in the box. 

In these two sides four regular season meetings, they produced a total of 13 goals, and despite having one of the top two scorers each as their starting strikers, there were little by way of clear cut chances in the opening half. 

Campion Hinds turned inside and shifted onto his left before unleashing a shot that just went wide of Sargent’s post. Down the other end Baggley had an effort from a free kick that hit the wall.

Athlone did face an early blow though, Jamar Campion Hinds who had looked bright picked up a knock he was unable to shake off, forcing a substitution just after the half hour mark, Orrego taking his place.

Connor Parsons had a chance to give the away side the lead moments later but after some great work to get into the box, could only flash his shot across goal and wide of the net. 

Despite playing an additional six minutes injury time at the end of the half due to a number of players receiving treatment, neither broke the deadlock as they went in level at the break.

After the break, Waterford got the breakthrough. Waterford’s young fullback Ryan Burke did well to take a quick throw in towards Ronan Coughlan, who did extremely well to hold up and spin his man before smashing near post past Minogue to give his side the lead. The First Division leading scorer showing his quality with an excellent finish. 

Moments later the Limerick man came inches from doubling his tally. Idowu with the ball in the box slid into Coughlan’s path but his left footed effort came back off the bottom of the post, having beaten the Athlone keeper all ends up. 

The hosts showed some fight back on the hour mark to stem the Blues flow, Valerii Dolia coming closest with a long range effort but it did sail over the crossbar. 

Athlone did dominate possession as they pushed for an equaliser late in the game, but Waterford looked solid in defence. 

It was going to take a moment of magic for the home side to get back into this, and that’s just what they got. Aaron Connolly played the ball into the feet of Frantz Pierrot, who used his strength to hold off the Blues defender, roll him and slide the ball into the bottom right corner from the edge of the box. 

With seven minutes on the clock, Waterford were denied what seemed a clear cut penalty. The Blues looked to be in behind when Oisin Duffy delivered a huge hit to Connor Parsons, that the hosts would argue was shoulder to shoulder. The away side will definitely feel hard done by as Parsons was caught in the back and went to ground. 

Athlone made three changes late as Waterford pushed for the late winner but managed to hold on for the draw. 

The majority of the 1500 crowd in Lissywollen will head home happy, whilst the travelling support will be confident, returning to the RSC as the favourites to advance in the second leg on Saturday.