Waterford United vs Wexford Youths

Waterford United will be looking to re-ignite their title push with a convincing win over Wexford Youths at the RSC this Friday (kick-off 19.45).

September has been a bit of a washout for the Blues so far, as first their match at Tolka Park was called off, and then two points were dropped at home to Monaghan United last weekend, and a win over Mick Wallace's side will be Waterford's top priority to get their title challenge back into top gear.

Mangaer Gareth Cronin acknowledges the importance of picking up maximum points from their next two games and has upped preparations.

“We must now beat Wexford Youths in our next home game and then go to Tolka Park to play Shels and try and take all three points."

"We will up our training this week ahead of those two big games. There are still 30 points to play for and we are still very much in the hunt."

Cronin will have to plan without the services of full back Stephen Quigley, red carded in the Monaghan game, and midfielder Kevin Waters who misses a game for reaching four penalty points. Luke Fitzpatrick missed out last week after injuring ribs at his workplace, and will be reassessed later in the week, but is expected to feature. The manager was buoyed by the news that central midfielder Paul McCarthy has recovered exceptionally quickly from his horror ankle injury and is now just a couple of weeks from resuming full training, though still a long way off availability for selection.

Wexford Youths FC manager Mick Wallace has a full squad to choose from for Friday's South East derby against Waterford United at the RSC, with Kyle Dempsey, Conor Wallace and Stuart Lawlor all returning from injury and Patsy Malone back from his one game suspension.

"Everyone's back for the Waterford game and places will be up for grabs and at a premium ahead of the League Cup final next weekend," Wallace said.

"The walking wounded have been cured somehow and we're seeing miraculous intervention in some cases, so it must be something to do with the squad of 16 for the final!

"We still haven't beaten Waterford but their pitch was awful last time we were down there and it hampered our passing game. Fingal's pitch on Monday was much improved from when we played their last and this had a big bearing on us beating them."

Extratime.ie Prediction:Waterford are clear favourites for this game at odds of 4-9 compared to Wexford at 13-2. A draw is available at 5-2. We are not going to fly in the face of the odds and we expect a 2-0 win from the Waterford men.