Waterford look for good start against Wicklow

Waterford footballers over the past two weekends made all the head lines, first beating Cork in the semi finals of the McGrath Cup at Clashmore and then winning the cup for the first time since 1981 in beating UCC in the Final at Fraher Field.

While winning the pre-season competition is nice and all involved with the panel and management team have to be congratulated, all will be aware that who won the competition will soon be forgotten and that the real business is about to begin.

Waterford lets face it, are always going to find it tough to win the Munster Senior Football Championship. That does not mean that major silverware cannot be won.

The league each year should be Waterford’s main priority when it comes to senior football. Waterford’s aim has to be to get out of the bottom division of the league and if achieved over the following years it main priority should be to retain their place in division three for a year or three and then push for a place in the second division.

Some years back Waterford began to make progress under John Kiely. The team pushed hard for one of the available places in the league final, meaning promotion for the two sides to make it to Croke Park regardless of who took the silverware.

Waterford for a number of years were well in with a chance of promotion going into the penultimate round of games but one or two results in the last two rounds of games went against Waterford meaning no promotion was achieved.

Former Tipperary Footballer John Owens was brought in to manage the team after John Kiely’s time in charge of the team came to an end and under the guidance of the Tipperary man, promotion was achieved at the first time of asking. The league final against Limerick was lost in Croke Park, but it was an achievement to get there.

Playing in division three, Waterford played well and going into the final two rounds of games Waterford could either win promotion or get relegated depending on results. Unfortunately for Waterford, results did not go the way of the team and the team were relegated after just one year.

Since going back down to division four, results for Waterford have proven to be mixed lot. Results were got from games where little was expected, a draw with Tipperary last year in Clonmel and a win against Leitrim at Fraher Field last year spring to mind. But games where Waterford were expected to get something from went against Waterford, loosing to the likes of a London side that have grown stronger in recent years.

After a promising start to the year, Waterford now head into the league this year on a high and will look to start with two points against Wicklow at Fraher Field on Saturday evening.

Last year Wicklow finished in third place, behind Tipperary and Clare and will be looking to go a step further this year. (Wicklow finished one point behind both, who finished on eleven points each from fourteen).

When Waterford travelled to Aughrim last year they were on the wrong end of a 2-14 to 0-12 result.

Wicklow started brightest, racing into a four point lead through Glynn, McGraynor, Furlong and Hayden. Waterford rattled the upright with their first main attack after which Shane Ahern landed a free. A Paul Whyte effort reduced the gap to 2 but Pat McWalter tapped over for Wicklow soon afterwards.

Wicklow’s first goal chance came mid-way through the first half, when Paul Earls found himself in space, but rattled the crossbar with a rising shot. Waterford broke free and countered well as Tony Grey slotted over and added another shortly after.

Two white flags from Seanie Furlong, one from a placed ball, gave Wicklow a little space. Soon after, Wicklow were presented with a golden chance to put some solid distance between the teams when Conor McGraynor was dragged down by Grey and his side were awarded a penalty. It wasn’t to be however, as Glynn put the effort wide of the goal and Wicklow went in at the break with an 8 point to 4 lead.

On the restart, Hayden and Finn extended Wicklow’s lead but Waterford then launched into a phase where they started to chip away at the lead.  Shane Ahern with a free, J.J. Hutchinson and Liam Ó Lonáin brought the gap down and only for some heroics in the Wicklow back line the An Rinn man would have had a goal.

Seanie Furlong used his strength to break away and burst the net with a massive effort for Wicklow, widening the gap to 4. Two more scores from the dangerous Kevin Murphy gave Wicklow some real breathing space for the first time and when Furlong raised his second green flag of the day, the result was never going to be in doubt. Wicklow closed out the game to win.

Heading into this weekends game, Wicklow have played three games in the O’Byrne Cup winning just one of them, that coming the first weekend of the year when they beat Carlow IT on a 2-14 to 2-8 score line but they had a certain degree of luck on the day as the Students scored both of Wicklow’s goals, Conor Lawlor the misfortunate player to be the last player to touch the ball twice before it crossed the line.

In Wicklow’s remaining games the Students from DIT proved too strong in the second round of games in a round robin competition winning 3-10 to 1-12 and in their final game they again went under this time to Wexford on a 2-15 to 2-11 score line.

In their three games in the competition, Johnny McGee has used 30 players, with just two players starting all three games and in the three games used three different goal keepers.

Some familiar names are likely to be named in the Wicklow team to play Waterford including James Stafford, Darren Hayden, Brendan McGrea, Dean Healy, Dean Odlum, Pat McWalter and Robert Lambert.

In their games in the O’Byrne Cup John McGrath has proven to be effective in front of goal hitting 1-13 for his side and is expected to feature in Fraher Field as well, where he could well punish any indiscipline shown within kicking reach of the Waterford goal.

From the time he was appointed Tom McGlinchey has set his goal for 2015 as getting out of the bottom division of the National League.

If Waterford can get off to a good start against Wicklow then the points are there for the taking. To beat Wicklow will not be easy, but Waterford are on a fine run of form recently and playing at Fraher Field which often can be a sixteenth man for Waterford, two points from this game is a reality.