Matt Keane reports
Waterford United will get their new season up and running on Friday night when they play away to Drogheda United. Blues manager Roddy Collins has been speaking ahead of the big kick-off.
“Like every other manager in the league, there is always one final piece of the jigsaw that you want to find to complete the squad and I’m hopeful we will do well.
“I think that when you look at the squad, we’re missing an experienced centre half but I have my eye out for one so I’m confident that will happen. I think that we have a good solid squad to be competitive in what’s going to be a very tough league.
“I’m very happy with the goalkeepers that we have at our disposal and I’m happy enough that we have a good defence. In the full back positions, we have Dean Reidy, Robbie Buckley and young Rod at right back and we have Sean Byrne, Jimmy Dermody and Dylan McGuire at left back.
“At the heart of the centre of the defence, we have Shane Mackey, Colum Nugent and Roy Butler but I’m still looking for that experienced centre back. I think that we’ll have a solid defence and goalkeeper which is always a good starting point.
“We have a good vary of player in midfield with Darren Murphy, Anthony McAlavey, Aaron O’Connor, James O’Brien and Dean Broaders. These are good players and we’re happy in that area of the field for us. We have Philly Gorman up front and he can put the ball in the back of the net for us.
“Yoann Fellrath and Eoin Rhodes are two very good athletic centre forwards that have the eye for goal and they’ll be good additions in that position. I’m sure if Dean Broaders is an out and out centre forward but he will also be an option in that position for us.
“I think when you look at the squad, individually they are very good player and now it’s just a case of settling them into the right blend for the type of game that we want them to play. We need to get them to play as a unit between now and as soon as possible.
“I want to address the pre-season games because I know that the fans have been somewhat worried by them. I took them on at the time because I thought that they’d be all in the RSC and I wanted the fans to see exactly where we need to strive to be. We were also hoping to bring revenue into the club.
“The Cork game was what it was and the Dundalk game was like lambs to the slaughter up there. We did learn a couple of bits and pieces out of these two games. I was happy enough with the game against Wexford Youths but both teams were learning about themselves in that game.
“Results mean nothing in pre-season to me and it’s now all down to the opening game of the season against Drogheda United, which is going to be a massive game for us all. There’s no doubt about it that it’s going to be a very tough league.
“The first series of games are an absolute brawl and let there be no doubt about that. It’s vital that we get the most points that we can from the first seven games of the season and I’ll be honest with you now, I really don’t care how we get them. It’s not going to be attractive because it’s all about getting results from these games”.
“We have winners in our mist and people need to realise that. You have me as a manager – a born winner. You have players like Philly Gorman, young Rod, Dean Broaders and others that have tasted success in this league and they’ll drill it into the other players how much it means to be winning.