League Preview: Kerry -v- Waterford

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KERRY

Kerry’s introduction to the harsh realities of League of Ireland football has been every bit as difficult as they might have imagined, and as the First Division approaches the half way stage this Monday, they are cut adrift at the foot of the table on six points.

There is a big 12-point gap between themselves and Finn Harps and Longford. both of whom are on 18 points, and a whopping 40-point difference between themselves and table toppers Galway Utd.

They did manage one very creditable win away to Athlone Town earlier in May, winning 3-2, and they also put in a confidence boosting performance on Friday night, making the ten-hour round trip to Ballybofey and coming away with a point in a 0-0 draw.

The other notable feature of the Finn Harps result was that it was their first clean sheet this season, another achievement that will boost their confidence for the second half of the season.

Harps did have a flurry of chances in both halves of Friday night’s game, but they found the Kerry defence to be very resolute on the night. Kerry obviously worked on their defensive structure after a 6-0 hammering by Wexford the previous weekend and the hours put in on the training ground appear to be paying dividends.

Team manager Billy Dennehy knows the size of the challenge facing his young squad on Monday, a point he reflected on when he spoke to the Kerry media team during the week. 

He said, “We all know that Waterford and Galway are playing in a league of their own at the moment, in terms of the resources they have and the investments they have made.

“They are at a far different level to where we are at the moment obviously but those games are there as a benchmark for us to see where we are at. We stay tonight (in Donegal, after the Finn Harps game), we have a long trip back down on Saturday, we have to recover quickly and get your energy levels back up for Waterford.

“The first half of that game against Waterford will let us know how much work and effort has gone into that recovery process, both collectively and individually.”



 

WATERFORD

Waterford missed out on promotion to the Premier Division last season after poor displays in the two-legged play off with UCD but they are on track to get a second bite at the cherry this season after a very impressive first half of the league campaign.

They are unlikely to catch runaway leaders Galway United for the automatic promotion spot, they have a ten- point advantage over them, but they themselves are 11 points ahead of third placed Bray Wanderers and will almost certainly be involved in the play offs again later this year.

Ex-Bohs manager Keith Long took over at the end of March and he has overseen nine wins up to last Friday night, a very impressive record.

They have accumulated 45 goals all season, the same total as Galway Utd, and Long bookended his two-month stint with the Blues with a 7-1 win in his first game in charge against Finn Harps and a 7-0 win against Treaty Utd last Friday night.



First Team Coach Brian Murphy spoke to the Waterford FC media team this week and said, “It was a very professional performance [against Treaty United]. We needed a good start and got ourselves in front early in the game with some very good goals and another clean sheet.

“Using the squad is so important with so many games and we got to do that [on Friday night] before the visit to Kerry. It’s about using the group we’ve spoken about that and it’ll be the same on Monday.

“We got back to work on Sunday to build towards Monday and we’ll travel down to Kerry looking for more points. We know it’ll be another tough match in Kerry but we’re ready to go.”

Referee: Declan Toland

 

MATCH STATS

The sole meeting between these two sides was in mid-April at the RSC Waterford and on that occasion a solitary 70th minute goal from Waterford’s Ronan Coughlan was the difference between the two sides.

Kerry have scored 12 goals in the league so far this season and Ryan Kelliher on four goals is their leading scorer.

Waterford have scored 45 goals in 17 games with Ronan Coughlan the leading scorer on 15 goals.

 

PREDICTION

Kerry 0 Waterford 4

 

BETTING

Kerry 22/1

Draw 9/1

Waterford 1/20

 

Kerry

Injured: None

Doubtful: None

Suspended: None

 

Waterford

Injured: Dean McMenamy, Harvey Warren, Wassim Aouachria.

Doubtful: None

Suspended: None

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