Henderson vows to fight on

As Waterford United manager Stephen Henderson and chairman John O’Sullivan made the long, slow trek around the athletics track after the final whistle in the RSC, the media and management committee waited for the result of the long conversation, obvious to all that it regarded the managers future at the club.

A visibly upset Stephen Henderson had just seen his side go down 1-0 to Shelbourne and be booed from the pitch by the home support, but insisted he will continue to fight until he turns things around. “I’m not gone (regardless of this result),” he said. “I’ve just had a chat with the chairman there and what we’ll do is that we’ll look to turn this all around. It’s not good enough for us at the moment and I’ll accept that. I’ll accept the abuse that is been rained down on us but we will turn it around.”

“I thought about resigning here tonight. The players work very hard for us but of course I have to look at it and it was a thought and I needed to speak to the chairman. I have never quit anything in my life but I needed to see where John (O’Sullivan) and the committee were coming from.”

“If they are ok for me to continue then I’ll continue and I’ll work my arse off until I turn this around until they say it’s time for me to go. As soon as they tell me it’s time to go, I’ll walk out that gate.

Henderson admitted that there was no point in making excuses for the performance but said that their play in the final third of the pitch was not up to scratch.

“I can come here and throw a whole lot of excuses at you but the players are working very hard for us. They worked very hard for us tonight and we had a good shape about us but we just weren’t good enough in the final third of the field. I will accept responsibility for that but I’ve never been outside the top four with any club that I’ve been with and at this stage of the season, I’ve not lost three matches on the trot so it’s a new experience for me.”

“I have to dig in. On the back of what’s going on here with the supporters and the committee, I don’t want to be putting them under any pressure whatsoever so I’ve spoken to John O’Sullivan and Greg Pheasey. We’re just going to dig in and turn this around, that I will guarantee you but until then, there isn’t much else I can say about it”, he said.

“None of you interviewing me to night are stupid people and you have seen what’s happened. We were against ten men tonight and we still couldn’t break them down. All credit to Shelbourne because we can’t take anything away from them. They dug in and kept their shape but they scored a messy goal – that’s life because when things are going against you stuff like that happens.”

After being booed from the pitch tonight, an angry Henderson asked that abuse from fans is not aimed at his players. He also wasn’t happy with the red card to Paul Murphy. “I’m devastated, the players are devastated and we’re all devastated but we’ll go on. What I will do though is I’ll ask that any abuse that comes down from that stand that it’s directed at me and leave my players alone, that’s all I’ll ask.”

“I also don’t think it was a sending off for Paul Murphy tonight, his two feet don’t leave the ground and he did it right in front of me. Every ball that went into the box, there seemed to be a free kick giving out against us for some reason but that’s not making excuses.”

Having been beaten by Longford Town the previous weekend, Henderson was pleased with the response from his players but rued the lack of creativity in the side during the match.

“The thing is that we have to look at the Longford game where we were terrible and how we responded to that here tonight. By and large, I think that the lads responded really well, we closed people down and I don’t think that Kevin (Burns) had a shot to save during the whole game even when they had eleven men.”

“But as I said, I have to depend on the players creativity to create chances and take them. We just didn’t do that tonight and that’s the reason why we lost the match. We were looking to win one nil, it was one nil but not for us unfortunately.”

With the disappointment from the fans evident on the night, the Blues boss revealed that some of his players were visibly upset after the game too, showing their ‘passion’ for the club. “There was tears in the eyes of a few players in the dressing room and in the eyes of myself but we’re determined to get this right. I think that the players are shown a bit of passion for the club and that’s all we ask for. We are hugely disappointed that we lost here tonight and it’s three on the trot.

“We’re a bit down and I can’t deny that I’m down but like we just need to put it up and while all talk of winning leagues, getting promoted or whatever has to be suspended, we have to get back to the basics. I think on the basis of last week, we’re on the up and there is a huge improvement. I think we can maintain this improvement week by week then we’re not out of this race by a long shot,” concluded Stephen Henderson.