Henderson Downbeat after friendly loss
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Stephen Henderson watched his Waterford side put on a brave showing while losing 3-0 to Ipswich Town at the RSC and afterwards he shared his thoughts with extratime.ie. A sweet strike from Kevin Lisbie and two well taken goals from Owen Garvan sealed the win for Town but Waterford played much better than the score line suggested.
Henderson agreed that there wasn’t an awful lot to be learned about his team from this friendly but there were certainly some plus points despite what he saw as three very soft goals. “Well yeah I think it proved how good the likes of Kenny Browne are, Willie John Kiely came on tonight and caused them all sorts of problems as did Graham [Cummins]. Then I look back at the three goals we conceded, three individual errors, stupid goals. I’m annoyed over them to be brutally honest, I know it’s only a friendly but still they were three ridiculous goals to give away.”
Roy Keane admitted in the post-match press conference that many of Waterford’s players wouldn’t have looked out of place in the Ipswich team but Henderson was quick to dismiss this. “No, not really. I think when you look at their players; they didn’t make very many mistakes. We worked hard; they had a good system of play in fairness to them. Like I say our back four looked solid enough, you know, from the middle of the park we worked hard and then when the two boys came on [up front]. Grinny [David Grincell], his pace caused them problems. So yeah it’s a good compliment but if you look at them, they’re only back training a week and you see their fitness levels and we’re halfway through a season. We done well in patches but disappointed with the three goals, I am really f***ing furious over them.”
New Blues signing Paul Walsh made his debut in the game and his manager was pleased with the new man’s display. “I’d say if he had have banged that header in in the first minute, you know, it might have encouraged him to get into the game a bit quicker but I thought as the game went on Paul got better and better. He got more into it and got some great crosses into the box and [did well] cutting inside. So yeah we were delighted with Paul, but we need to get him a little bit fitter too.”
The main positive from this game from a Waterford point of view will have been none of their players picking up an injury. As we enter a crucial stage of the season the Blues will need everyone available to fight for promotion. “That was the most important thing. We treated it as a serious training session, you know, that’s what we wanted. If we hadn’t have been playing tonight we would have been doing a fairly lively training session. The lads went out and worked extremely hard and we gave Ipswich a game, I thought we gave them a game anyway but that was the most important thing.”
Henderson agreed that there wasn’t an awful lot to be learned about his team from this friendly but there were certainly some plus points despite what he saw as three very soft goals. “Well yeah I think it proved how good the likes of Kenny Browne are, Willie John Kiely came on tonight and caused them all sorts of problems as did Graham [Cummins]. Then I look back at the three goals we conceded, three individual errors, stupid goals. I’m annoyed over them to be brutally honest, I know it’s only a friendly but still they were three ridiculous goals to give away.”
Roy Keane admitted in the post-match press conference that many of Waterford’s players wouldn’t have looked out of place in the Ipswich team but Henderson was quick to dismiss this. “No, not really. I think when you look at their players; they didn’t make very many mistakes. We worked hard; they had a good system of play in fairness to them. Like I say our back four looked solid enough, you know, from the middle of the park we worked hard and then when the two boys came on [up front]. Grinny [David Grincell], his pace caused them problems. So yeah it’s a good compliment but if you look at them, they’re only back training a week and you see their fitness levels and we’re halfway through a season. We done well in patches but disappointed with the three goals, I am really f***ing furious over them.”
New Blues signing Paul Walsh made his debut in the game and his manager was pleased with the new man’s display. “I’d say if he had have banged that header in in the first minute, you know, it might have encouraged him to get into the game a bit quicker but I thought as the game went on Paul got better and better. He got more into it and got some great crosses into the box and [did well] cutting inside. So yeah we were delighted with Paul, but we need to get him a little bit fitter too.”
The main positive from this game from a Waterford point of view will have been none of their players picking up an injury. As we enter a crucial stage of the season the Blues will need everyone available to fight for promotion. “That was the most important thing. We treated it as a serious training session, you know, that’s what we wanted. If we hadn’t have been playing tonight we would have been doing a fairly lively training session. The lads went out and worked extremely hard and we gave Ipswich a game, I thought we gave them a game anyway but that was the most important thing.”
About Dean Hayes
Dean covers Waterford United and, due to a challenge from Gareth, writes in an increasingly Gonzo style. Having found himself with a considerable surplus of a culinary herb, Dean founded sister 'site extrathyme.ie some years … View Full Profile