JUST like the good old days. Waterford United supporters are marching to a new beat; and their newfound addiction was fed at the Regional Sports Ground last night when, finally, the Blues managed to usurp their Division One colleagues-in-arms Drogheda United, in a frenetic FAI Harp Lager Cup quarter-final.

Cup tales are full of woe. Drogheda's players will have many to retell after last night's episode when a late penalty - after earlier being reduced to 10 men - ultimately ended their brave survival effort. It was an exceptionally harsh way to exit, their dreams quashed in a cauldron of Waterford's new faithful, an increasingly large army.

Ironically, a young man who nowadays lives across the road from Waterford's old haunt in Kilcohan Park, where many cup runs were nurtured, inflicted the killer-blow. John "Chilli" Power enhanced his reputation as a penalty king when blasting the ball past goalkeeper Jody Byrne, making it six out of six this season. But none was as precious as last night's ticket to the semi-finals.

Waterford, who created most efforts on a stamina-sapping muddy pitch, had a number of penalty appeals turned down - but referee Aidan O'Regan eventually succumbed to a shout in the 77th minute when Decian Roche challenged Alan Reynolds, a decision which left Drogheda players aghast. The tackle appeared as innocuous as those which had fallen on deaf ears previously. Still, Power, cooler than his nickname would suggest, ignored all the protests and stepped up to manfully fire home.

In fairness to Drogheda, who had beaten Waterford in their two league encounters this season, the towel wasn't thrown in; far from it. As Waterford attempted to keep what they'd worked so hard to achieve, Drogheda, despite the numerical inferiority, finally managed to find some gaps and substitute Noel Reid was unlucky to see a late, late header crash off the crossbar.

It was that sort of night for Drogheda, destined to play a supporting role. Waterford's supporters - much the dominant in the 5,000 crowd which yielded gate receipts of £12,000 - created an intimidating atmosphere and, perhaps, Drogheda's only hint of solace arrived as early as the fourth minute when an early Waterford goal from Donal Golden was ruled out for an infringement on goalkeeper Byrne.

Otherwise, Drogheda had little to take from a night when nerves were vital - and, particularly the loss of a man, in the 68th minute was to prove crucial to the Louth side's hopes. The dismissal came when Martin Beggs was punished for a late tackle on Power, referee O'Regan perhaps feeling the time had come to take stiffer action after earlier issuing four yellow cards: three to Drogheda players, Alan Murphy, John Carroll and John Reid, and one Waterford United player, Alan Reynolds.

The crunch penalty decision came some nine minutes after that sending off, at a time when Drogheda were defending frantically, but successfully. Interestingly, Waterford had two penalty appeals - in the 65th and 67th minutes - turned down, correctly, after challenges by John Carroll inside the box on Donal Golden, who had worked industriously throughout, and Paul Scully. Something had to give, though, and the third touch-and-go decision (particularly so quickly after the two denials) went Waterford's way and Power proved to be the man for the job.

The match itself was typical of a cup tie. Players had very little time to settle on the ball, and the poor condition of the pitch didn't lend itself to attractive fare. However, Golden, on two occasions within minutes of the second-half resuming, threatened to penetrate Drogheda's goal: firstly a mere 40 seconds after the re-start when his shot flew over the crossbar and then in the 48th minute, when Byrne tipped his 25-yard piledriver away for a corner.

Overall, though, it was Waterford's night and the army of soccer fans who have rediscovered their sporting religion have much to anticipate.