MATCH PREVIEW: Waterford FC vs Derry City FC

It’s a quick turnaround for the Blues after Friday nights draw at the RSC against Dundalk, as we welcome Derry City to our home for our final SSE Airtricity Men’s Premier Division meeting against the Candystripes of 2026, and we have everything you need to know ahead of kick-off.

Waterford FC vs Derry City FC

SSE Airtricity Men’s Premier Division

Monday 14th September, 2026

RSC, Waterford

7:45pm

WATERFORD FC

Graham Coughlan’s Blues made it 12 games unbeaten in all competitions on Friday night with a 1-1 draw against Dundalk at the RSC. After falling behind early on, Hayden Cann got on the end of Benny Couto’s inch perfect set-piece delivery to net his first of the season to ensure we maintained our unbeaten run.

The last time out against Derry City, the Blues picked up a huge set of three points with an impressive 4-2 win at the Ryan McBride Brandywell Stadium. After going 3-0 ahead through a Tommy Lonergan brace & a Pádraig Amond strike, the hosts netted a quick fire double to set up a tense end. However, substitute Jorgen Voilas made sure of the points late on adding our fourth.

The sides’ other previous meetings this year were a dramatic 2-2 draw at the RSC back in May, whilst the Candystipes secured all three points in our first meeting at the Brandywell at the end of February winning by four-goals-to-two.

DERRY CITY FC

Mark Connolly’s Derry head to the RSC on Monday night fresh off the back of an important win in Tolka Park on Friday against Shelbourne. As the game looked set for a 0-0 result, Derry’s leading goalscorer this season Michael Duffy popped up with a 94th minute winner to ensure the Candystripes would bring all three points back up to the Brandywell.

Similarly to the Blues, Derry have also reached the Club Orange Men’s FAI Cup semi-finals, where they are set to travel to Eamonnn Deacy Park to take on Galway United , having defeated Dundalk 4-2 at the Ryan McBride Brandywell Stadium last week.

WATERFORD FC TEAM NEWS

Graham Coughlan will have to assess his squad in training today ahead of tomorrow’s clash at the RSC. Sam Glenfield has continued his return to action with light training, whilst Will Johnson remains on the injury list.

GRAHAM COUGHLAN’S THOUGHTS

“The beauty of football is that you get all these tests [against good sides]. But I could reverse that fairly quickly and say we’ll be a tough test for Derry on Monday night. It’ll be two good teams with plenty of quality going up against each other.

Both teams will be dangerous, both offensively and defensively. We both have offensive players that can win games for us, and at the back both are pretty solid. It’s two good teams going up head-to-head.

Fortunately for us, in our two games [since I’ve been here], we’ve taken four points off them. We’re looking forward to it as usual. We’re in a good place, 12 games unbeaten, so we’ll let Derry worry about us.”