SSE Airtricity League Premier Division
Shamrock Rovers -v- Waterford FC
Friday, October 19, 2018
Kick Off: 8pm
Referee: Robert Harvey
It’s third versus fourth this Friday as Waterford FC make the trip to Tallaght Stadium to face Shamrock Rovers.
The Blues come into the game on the back of a 2-1 defeat at home to league champions Dundalk last Friday. Patrick Hoban’s header and Ronan Murray’s low finish had Dundalk 2-0 up. An excellent late Blues move with Gavan Holohan setting up Dessie Hutchinson gave some late hope but it wasn’t to be as Dundalk picked up the points.
The Blues sit fourth and are guaranteed at least a top 4 finish – but would need to win the remaining two matches along with Friday’s opponents dropping points in their final match to steal 3rd place.
The sides go into the final meeting of the season after three close games so far. Two goals from Courtney Duffus ensured a 2-1 win in the RSC in March. Gavan Holohan scored as the sides drew 1-1 in Tallaght Stadium before Gary Shaw scored the only goal in a 1-0 Shamrock Rovers win in the RSC.
Speaking ahead of the game, manager Alan Reynolds said:
“We have no complaints about the Dundalk result last week. We used some players who had not played recently but had been training well and deserved a chance. We changed the shape a little and we had a go. The effort was there from us but the best team won.
“We were missing players to illness and injury too but we’ll have them back this Friday.
“We’re all really looking forward to Friday. There’s a long history between the clubs and we’ve had three really tight games already and we were disappointed to lose the last game in the RSC. We know we’ll have plenty of support up there so that’ll help drive us on to try get a result.”
TEAM NEWS: Alan Reynolds has no injury concerns ahead of the game.
