Ian Morris: 'You’re always wanting your forward players to get off the mark early goalscoring or assist-wise and they’ve all done that tonight'

Ian Morris watches on as his side run out 5-2 winners over Athlone Town at Lissywollen in his first game as manager of Waterford on Friday, 18 February 2022.

Ian Morris watches on as his side run out 5-2 winners over Athlone Town at Lissywollen in his first game as manager of Waterford on Friday, 18 February 2022. Credit: Gerry Shanahan (ETPhotos)

Paul Corcoran reports from Athlone Town Stadium

Ian Morris got off to the perfect start as manager of Waterford with a 5-2 win over Athlone Town on Friday night.

Goals from Phoenix Patterson, Cian Kavanagh, Louis Britton and a brace from Quitirna gave the Blues a commanding victory over Martin Russell’s men and meant they opened their campaign with three points.

“Very pleased, coming away from home and scoring five goals you’ve got to be happy, the two goals we conceded are a bit of a sour taste in my mouth but looking at the bigger picture we came away to get three points tonight and we’re going away with that,” Morris said, speaking to extratime.com after Friday night’s game.

“You’re always wanting your forward players to get off the mark early goalscoring or assist-wise and they’ve all done that tonight and they were really exciting going forward and creating chances and scoring goals.

“We can’t ask for more than that, we’ll just marry the two together scoring goals and keeping clean sheets and we’ll be happy.”

There were two negatives from Friday night’s game for the Blues in the form of goals from Athlone’s Stephen Kenny and Glen McAuley late in the fixture, but Morris was happy to focus on the positives given it was the opening day of the season.

“You’re never going to hit the ground being absolutely on top form, but we showed glimpses of it, we were really good going forward and moved the ball well.

“I’m really pleased, in my mind you’re still looking at the bits we could have done better but when you sit down and look at it, it’s a top performance going away from home and scoring that amount of goals.”

Waterford are one of the favourites to win the First Division this season and the side will no doubt have been checking how their rivals got on in their first games of the season.



There were lots of goals across the division with Cork City beating Bray Wanderers 6-0, Treaty United beating Wexford 5-1 on Friday – the Blues’ boss seemed unphased by the results, however.

“You see the results around the league tonight, there are some top teams in this league we’ve just got to keep focussing on the next game and the next game and picking up points.

“We’ll know after round one of the games where we’re all sitting, and we’ll have a better idea but at this early stage of the season it’s just about getting your performances right and getting as many points on the board as you possibly can.”

    About Paul Corcoran

    Paul Corcoran is an experienced writer and journalist and has contributed to various publications including the Galway United match programme Maroon View. He spends much of his time covering the fortunes of Galway United's teams … View Full Profile