Ian Morris: 'We’re unbeaten in the league and we’re still top and we’ve got to focus on that'

Paul Corcoran reports from Eamonn Deacy Park

Having been by far the stronger team in the first half and taking a 2-0 lead against Galway United on Friday night, Waterford ended up sharing the points with the Tribesmen with the concession of two goals in a much different second half performance for Ian Morris’ side.

Junior Quitirna and Eddie Nolan put the Blues in front with Galway United looking second best throughout the opening 45 but the roles reversed for the rest of the game and Jordan Adeyemo and Stephen Walsh scored for the home side for a 2-2 draw.

Ian Morris spoke to extratime.com after the game and he was happy with the result despite his side losing the strong position they held at one point on Friday night.

“Emotions are high after the game, you’ve a bit of time to digest and in the context of how the game finished a point is really good for us on the road. We’re unbeaten in the league and we’re still top and we’ve got to focus on that,” he explained after Friday night’s game.

“Yes, we’ve got loads we need to work on, but we can’t get lost and fall into traps of thinking and certain ways. We’ll bounce back and prepare and be right back at it again tomorrow and we’ll look forward to our game next week.”

A large and vocal home support at Deacy Park on the night and an early goal in the second half put the Blues under pressure – and there will be a further concern for the Blues next game with Richard Taylor receiving a straight red after an altercation with Galway’s Stephen Walsh.

“We were fantastic first half, arguably should have been three or four up with the chances we had before we scored.

“Then the second half, conceding after three minutes you invite pressure, and you invite the crowd and we never really got going,” Morris said.

“Going down to ten men is frustrating in the manner that it happened. That’s a big learning curve for Rich, in that context as well we’ll take the point, we were under big pressure with ten men, but we dug in so that’s a positive.

“He's gone chest to chest with him, there was no hand, there was no head there was none of that, but he incites the crowd an gives the ref a decision to make so I think it’ll be a fairly simple one, it’ll probably be a one gamer and he misses it. He’ll learn quickly and fast on that.”

It was a physical contest for the first meeting of the two favourites for the First Division title this season with referee Alan Patchell handing out eight bookings during the game, not including Richard Taylor’s red card.

“You have to be more physical against Galway, that’s Galway’s game. They want to rough and tumble, they want to set up set pieces, they want to go toe to toe, and they wanted a physical game and you have to match that.

“If you don’t match that, they’ll overpower you, that’s their model so our boys had to stand up and I thought they did. I thought we dominated the first half, I thought we were too fast, too quick and we were a much better team.

“Then the second half, you just give them that glimmer and when they keep popping balls down the side and up high and landing on seconds, they’re going to cause you problems and they got the two goals from it.

“In that sense, really poor from us, like I said you’ve got to realise the context though and it’s a point away from home and still top of the league.”

Waterford face Wexford in their next game on Friday night at the RSC (kick-off 7.45pm).

Jordan Adeyemo: 'You could say that we were nearly under a spell in the second half the way we came out' https://t.co/2BxgohHbUCpic.twitter.com/hadP1KZ5vI

— Extratime.com (@ExtratimeNews) March 7, 2022