After moving nine points clear at the summit of the SSE Airtricity League First Division table with a facile 4-0 victory against Cobh Ramblers on Friday night last, Waterford FC will be hoping to move a step closer to the Promised Land when they entertain Athlone Town on Friday evening with a 7.45pm kick-off.
With the Blues in pole position going into the final series of games, they’ll be looking for a similar performance and result that saw a 6-1 win over Roddy Collins side in the game before the mid-season break, but will be taking nothing for granted in this game.
The Blues go Friday’s game on the back of an excellent home win in front of a 1,852 crowd against title rivals Cobh last weekend where an incredible atmosphere played a pivotal part in this latest victory that sets them up nicely for the visit of the Midlanders.
Waterford’s Shane O’Connor scored twice last weekend in the win and he is looking forward to another home game on Friday. “I think that we’ve built a foundation of not conceding and we have the attacking threat to get goals something that we saw against Cobh last weekend.
“I have to say though that you would go far to see the atmosphere that these lads created here at the RSC. It was brilliant and these fans have got really behind us both home and away this season which is fantastic. We have seven games to go and I think that we will win the league the way we’re playing.
“Our squad is full of quality and we’ve all worked hard together to get this project to where it is now. We lay our foundations from the back and we don’t concede many goals so I think that we should have this wrapped up in the next couple of games all going well.
“I think that we owe Athlone Town another one because the opening day of the season will live long in the memory. We need to put on another performance and score some more goals so hopefully we’ll have the RSC rocking once again.”
Team News: The Blues have no suspensions to worry about but Mark O’Sullivan is ruled out for another two weeks with a back injury, while Sander Puri is on the road to recovery and should be back in contention for a return to the squad in a couple of weeks.
