Waterford secured a return ticket to Division 1A of the national hurling league courtesy of this afternoon's hugely impressive victory over Wexford.

The visitors outworked, outmuscled and outthought their opponents to run out six–point winners, and, in the process, reclaim their seat at the league’s top table 12 months after suffering relegation.

The winners were rarely troubled during the second period, five-points as close as Wexford came of Derek McGrath’s side.

The dead-ball accuracy of Pauric Mahony, added to scores from Tom Devine and Jamie Barron eased the Deise across the finish line.

Waterford enjoyed a six-point interval advantage (0-13 to 0-7) and really should have been further out of sight, their wides tally climbing to 10 by the time Colm Lyons sounded the half-time whistle.

The opening 20 minutes or so were evenly matched on the scoreboard, but Waterford were clearly enjoying the upper hand inside the four white lines. Their two-man full-forward line, the redeployment of Kevin Moran as a third midfielder and deep positioning of their half-forward created an abundant of space in the Waterford forward unit which Wexford were unsuccessful in dealing with.

Jake Dillon and Colin Dunford clipped two points apiece, centre-forward Pauric Mahony inflicting most damage with six frees.

Indeed, it was his second free that tapered the fuse on a productive 10 minute spell for the visitors that yielded six unanswered scores.

Ian Byrne and Liam Óg McGovern splits the posts in quick succession at the other end to keep Wexford in touch approaching the break. In truth, the home outfit were the architects of their first-half downfall with a string of errors, misplaced passes and a laissez faire approach in their half-back line.

Scorers for Wexford: J Guiney (0-6, 0-5 frees); I Byrne (0-3 frees), D O’Keeffe (0-3 each); L Og McGovern (0-2); P Foley, C McDonald (0-1 each).

Scorers for Waterford: P Mahony (0-12, 0-11 frees); J Dillon (0-3); C Dunford (0-2); J Barron, T Devine, S Bennett, A Gleeson (0-1 each).

Wexford: M Fanning; L Ryan, M O’Hanlon, E Conroy; P Foley, E Moore, A Shore; D Redmond, L Chin; D O’Keeffe, D Waters, I Byrne; L Og McGovern, C McDonald, P Doran.

Subs: K Foley for P Doran (HT), J Guiney for Byrne (HT), H Kehoe for Redmond (41 mins), G Sinnott for Moore (48), S Tompkins for Waters (62)

Waterford: S O’Keeffe; S Fives, B Coughlan, N Connors; T de Burca, A Gleeson, Philip Mahony; J Barron, C Dunford; M Walsh, Pauric Mahoy, J Dillon; B O’Halloran, S Bennett, K Moran.

Subs: M Shanahan for Bennett (50), T Devine for O’Halloran (59), M Kearney for Dunford (66), M O’Neill for Dillon (68), S O’Sullivan for Barron (70).

Referee: C Lyons (Cork).