League Preview: Wexford -v- Waterford

WEXFORD

Friday night sees the second instalment of the Sunny South-East derby with Wexford hosting near neighbours Waterford at Ferrycarrig Park with a 7.45 pm kick-off.

Wexford come into the game on the back of some patchy form with a win, a draw and a defeat from their last three games, as well as an overall record that divides their results into slightly more negative than positive.

The last time they took to the field in Ferrycarrig they put four goals past Cobh Ramblers, winning 4-2. But Wexford have only won two of their five home games, a sequence that includes a 5-1 thumping by Treaty United and a heavy 3-0 defeat to Longford Town.

But statistics tell only part of the story.

The atmosphere around Wexford’s season is positive and while recent results may not look brilliant on paper they include a narrow 1-0 defeat to First Division leaders Cork City in which Cork goalkeeper Dave Harrington was, by all accounts, the visitors’ hero on a night that could easily have gone Wexford’s way.

Six days prior to that Wexford came away from Galway United (second in the table just 3 points shy of top spot) with a creditable draw after Galway equalised in the 87th minute.

Add to this the uncertainty in the Waterford dressing room and you have a situation that perhaps favours the home side this coming Friday. 

The team news for Wexford is that Ian Ryan will be without Luca Lovic and Mitchell Byrne who are both estimated to be two weeks away from a return.

WATERFORD



The Blues will arrive at Ferrycarrig Park on Friday night with Gary Hunt and Gary Breen in charge of the team after manager, Ian Morris, departed the club on Wednesday.

This followed an Easter weekend in which Waterford suffered two home defeats, and a start to the season that yielded four wins and two draws from their opening ten matches.

Admittedly those two defeats were against the top two teams in the First Division. But the Blues will have expected that they would be among those top two teams. Instead they are sitting fifth in a nine-team Division, seven points behind leaders Cork City.

Last season was something of a roller-coaster at the RSC with a dreadful start under Kevin Sheedy almost being rescued by an ebullient period under Marc Bircham before a surprise end-of-season sacking and relegation from the Premier Division under their third manager of the season, Ian Hendon.

An immediate return to the top tier under Ian Morris, who guided Shelbourne to last year’s First Division title, was the aim, but there was little about Waterford’s early season form that suggested this might happen. Wednesday’s departure of Morris was not unexpected.

The Blues will be without Junior Quitirna who went off injured in the Good Friday game against Galway and was ruled out of Easter Monday’s defeat to Cork City. Also out through injury is Anthony Wordsworth.



Referee: Mark Moynihan

MATCH STATS

Phoenix Patterson heads Waterford’s scoring charts with five goals from the Blues’ opening ten matches. For Wexford, Aaron Dobbs is their leading marksman with four goals so far this season.

Wexford have kept just one clean sheet in their 10 league games, and failed to score three times. Waterford have kept two clean sheets and failed to score twice.

The teams have already met once this season, when Waterford won 2-1 at the RSC in early March.

PREDICTION

Wexford 2-1 Waterford

Wexford

Injured: Luca Lovic, Mitchell Byrne.

Doubtful: None.

Suspended: None.

Waterford

Injured: Junior Quitirna, Anthony Wordsworth.

Doubtful: None.

Suspended: None.

    About Simon O'Gorman

    Simon O'Gorman began reporting for Extratime in 2010. He remembers Milltown and Flower Lodge and, back in the mists of time, saw Diego Maradona play at Lansdowne Road. He now lives in Co Kildare and … View Full Profile