Murray happy with first league win

One point from two games represents a poor start to the season for Waterford United, but a hard earned 1-0 victory against Finn Harps last Friday has lifted the spirits in the squad heading into away games against Tralee Dynamos and Salthill Devon this week.

“It’s a good feeling to get our first win of the season but I think perhaps we were a bit unlucky not to get it a bit earlier”, Waterford United captain Kevin Murray said . “We’re happy to be finally up and running with a win because Finn Harps are a very good team and to beat them was great for us. Hopefully now this win will kick-start our season.”

Having been without Willie John Kiely for the Monaghan United league match and Newbridge Town, the striker made an instant return, scoring the winning goal in the game. “It was also great to see Willie John get off the mark considering what happened over the last couple of weeks and we missed him to be honest. He is always a threat inside the penalty area and you saw it again tonight with the goal he scored but he was joint top scorer in the league last year so hopefully this goal tonight will be the start of a goalscoring run for him. I’m delighted that he got the goal tonight because it was important that we got a win after the loss in Monaghan.”

The game itself was tough for the home side with the winner coming late in the game but the Blues captain knows that there is still a long way to go despite a slow start to the season.

“We had a few chances in the first half from set pieces. Stephen has us working hard on taking our chances from corners, free kicks and that but we came up against a goalkeeper that made a number of top class saves. It’s a win for us tonight but people have to remember that there is still a long way to go in the season. We have only three games played and to have four points on the board is decent considering that we more or less have a brand new midfield and we’re improving with every game.”

Waterford United have been using a different system this season, and despite losing numerous players pre-season, Murray was happy with its progress and the victory.

“We decided to change things around a bit for the game tonight because they weren’t working out in the first two games and thankfully tonight it worked for us. I don’t think that they created too much during the course of the ninety minutes. We’ve a lot of young players that are still learning but hopefully this win will help us.”

“But people have to remember that we lost players and it takes time for players to get to know each other. We know ourselves that we are right up there with the best teams in this league but we just have to reach our potential. It wasn’t our best performance tonight but we’re just delighted to get the win.”

This Friday sees a trip to Salthill Devon in the league and Murray isn’t expecting an easy game. He also believes that Stephen Henderson has put together a squad capable of winning the league.

“I think that we are good enough and strong enough to be up there fighting for promotion but we have to believe that we’re good enough to win the league and to go out and win matches. That should start against Tralee on Wednesday before the game away to Salthill Devon away from home next weekend.”

“We’ll look forward to next week and we know it won’t be easy. There was pressure on us to win the game tonight because we were joint favourites to win the league at the start of the season and also after finishing second in the league last year.”