Waterford FC – Match Preview Away v Shelbourne
Friday, March 17th, 2017
Kick Off: 7.45pm
Referee: Paula Brady
Waterford FC will look to make it three wins in a row this St Patrick’s Day with a trip to face Shelbourne in Tolka Park.
The match will be the Blues fourth game of the 2017 season and comes hot on the heels of last week’s trip to Dublin to face UCD.
The Blues made it back to back wins in that game against UCD with a 2-0 win. Patrick McClean made it 1-0 before Tom Smith made sure of the three points with a late second goal. Those three point saw the Blues make it six points from six in their last two matches, and they’ll be looking to make it three wins from three this Friday.
The Blues fared the better of the two sides in their four meetings last season. Shelbourne won 4-1 in the opening meeting of the sides, but the Blues won the remaining three: 2-0, 2-1 and 1-0.
Blues midfielder Tom Smith, who scored his first Blues goal last weekend, was pleased with last weekend’s win and is looking forward to the Shelbourne.
“I’m delighted to get the goal. Davy McDaid put the ball on the plate for me so if I missed it was all on me really but it’s nice to see it find the net. I’m really enjoying it here.
“It’s two wins on the bounce and it’s two clean sheets so in that regard we couldn’t ask for anything better to be honest with you. We need to look at the next game now where we need to look for the same and even more. We have Shelbourne and it’s a big weekend over here in Ireland.
“We need to start it with three points and then hopefully we’ll be able to enjoy the weekend even more. We are still gelling as a team because we’ve got so many new players so we’re obviously still getting to know each other.
“I think it’s definitely going to be a case of the more games we play the better we are going to get as a team and I think people have seen that again. It’s great to win and hopefully we’ll continue on the good run.”
Defender David Mulcahy is expecting another tough game for the Blues this Friday, and knows it’ll be nothing less from his former team mate and manager Owen Heary.
“I’ve played with and for Owen Heary so I know what type of team that he likes to put together. It will be very defensive, very direct and a very physical team. I know that they got a good result down in Cobh where it’s always very hard to play with a tight pitch.
“We are expecting it to be different and for them to very direct so we’ll have to match them. If we could win that we have that little derby in the corner of Ireland against Wexford FC. Everyone loves them and they are like cup games.
“I used to cherish them up in Dublin. Anything can happen in them regardless of whether you are top or bottom of the league. Everyone will be gearing up for it at the RSC so it would be nice to go into that game with another win under our belts.
“Things are gelling nicely. Everyone wants to be in the team and as you can see training is very intense. The better the squad is the better the team becomes and that’s what it’s all about here at Waterford this year.”
Mark O’Sullivan remains a doubt having missed last week’s clash away to UCD while Sander Puri and David McDaid are also doubts for this week’s match. Puri sustained a knock in training on Monday while McDaid will face a late fitness test ahead of the game having been forced off late on against UCD last weekend.
