Waterford United -v- Dundalk FC

Joint leaders Dundalk will move three points clear at the top of the League of Ireland First Division table, for 24 hours at least, if they end their three-month winless run on the road when they travel to face third-placed Waterford United at the RSC this Friday evening (kick-off 7.45pm). The Lilywhites have not won outside of Oriel Park since defeating Longford Town back in late July, however, they will have to end that sequence now to keep pace with Shelbourne, who travel to Flancare Park on Saturday night.

For Dundalk, who currently trail Shels by just a single goal at the summit, it is the last outing of the season against one of the ‘big four’. However, winger Paul Smyth has stated that this weekend’s game is no more vital than the three that follow it. “This is a big game for us,” Smyth admitted to dundalkfc.com. “But they’re all big between now and the end of the season. John keeps saying you can only look at the next game, and he’s right.

“It’s going to be massive, but so is next week against Limerick, and even when you get over that, it’s the same. Each of the four games left are equally important. We know what’s at stake this weekend. We’ve already heard this week that Waterford are likely to get two points extra from their game with Athlone, which is disappointing for us, to hear things like that. But we can’t worry about that.”

Smyth is also confident about burying the side’s RSC ghost. On Dundalk’s last visit there, they failed to find a cutting edge despite a dominant display and were sucker punched deep into stoppage time as Waterford stole an undeserved win. “We were very unlucky the last time we played down there,” Smyth said. “I think we played really well and then Waterford went and scored five minutes into injury-time.

“That was a killer blow, but it gives us a good incentive to go down there this time and get a bit of revenge. I think the confidence in the squad is up again with the result we got against Sporting Fingal. I think the performance was much improved and, hopefully, we can go down to Waterford and keep the same intensity and put in a similar performance again, and this time get out with the three points.”

Dundalk bounced back from two straight losses last week to defeat Sporting Fingal 2-1 at Oriel Park. Due to those two reversals, manager John Gill came under increased pressure prior to the visit of Fingal. However, Smyth believes that it’s down to the players to stand up and be counted. He also revealed that the club’s Board of Directors last week offered to provide anything that the players felt would aid their promotion push.

“With Dundalk being such a big club and with the high expectation around here, there’s always going to be a lot of pressure,” the 27-year-old acknowledged. “We lost two games and, in fairness, the two performances in those games were very bad. It was poor, so people are going to be giving out, and that’s going to come back to the manager. You see it at all levels of football. If things are going bad, everybody blames the manager.

“But we all want to win the league and we’ve all got to stick together. The season has been topsy-turvy so far, but every year brings a bit of that. We met the Board last week and they asked us was there anything they could do to get us over the line. The players all agreed that it was just up to us. John Gill doesn’t go out and play on the pitch. Preparation is perfect and training and fitness is great. It’s up to the players to do their bit on the pitch. The Board told us that they’d do anything in their power to get this club promoted, but we said back that that’s exactly what we want to do too.

“It has been a bit of a rollercoaster ride. We went on great runs of form and then we went through sticky patches. Perhaps, the win against Fingal has brought us out of that patch now and we can kick-on again from here. John was treating the last five games as a mini-league because everyone was so close, and if we could win that mini-league, then that would mean that we’d win the title. That’s a good way of looking at it.

“Every season is going to bring highs and lows, and we’ve had plenty of them. Everybody knew with Shels, Waterford and Fingal there that it was going to be close and nobody was going to run away with it, and it has turned out like that. It’s squeaky-bum time now. There’s four cup finals left and the team that holds its nerve is the one that will probably come out on top.”

In their three previous meetings with Waterford this term, Dundalk have won twice at Oriel Park, 1-0 in April and 2-1 in August, and lost on their only visit to the RSC, in June, when they were stunned by a 95th minute goal. However, despite losing that day, that was widely regarded as the side’s best performance of the season, and by some distance.

Dundalk will, however, have to overcome a poor recent away record if they are to gain revenge for that defeat. Since beating Longford 3-0 on 28 July, the Lilywhites have drawn three and lost two of their subsequent five away games. They are also without a clean-sheet in nine league games since holding Fingal scoreless at the Morton Stadium on 8 August, while they have not won-to-nil since a 1-0 home victory over Wexford Youths on 31 July.

Waterford, meanwhile, come into this game on the back of two hammerings on the road, to Sporting Fingal (1-3) and Limerick (1-5). However, they could be boosted before kick-off if, as expected, the FAI decide to hand the Blues an extra two points from their meeting with Athlone Town earlier this month. Regardless of that, though, manager Gareth Cronin has promised a much improved performance from that which seen his side battered in Jackman Park last Friday.

"It was shambolic, shocking, and horrendous in every way," Cronin said of that display in Limerick. "At times, it was embarrassing, we could not put two passes together and when we had a chance to get back in the game just after half-time, we failed to take it. Fair play to Mike Kerley and his Limerick side, they played some fast and exciting football, but we made it easy for them. I am extremely disappointed with the performance of many of the players.

"I can promise our supporters in the RSC this Friday that we will do all that we can to beat Dundalk, and if we can do that we can still win the league. There will have to be a big improvement in our attitude and our performance, and I can guarantee that."

Team News: Dundalk will be without striker Robbie Farrell, who is suspended as a result of incurring an additional one-match ban for his red card in Monaghan last month. Farrell has scored five goals in his last five appearances. Fellow forward Robbie Martin (back) is out for the remainder of the season as he faces another operation, while the Lilywhites’ attacking options are further limited with injury also ruling out Tiarnán Mulvenna. On the plus side, front man Dessie Baker is available again after recovering from a bug which laid him low last week. Key midfielder David Cassidy also returns after serving a one-match ban.

Waterford, meanwhile, are badly hit by suspensions, as they are without influential central defender Kenny Browne, top marksman Vinny Sullivan and the only Blues player to score against Dundalk this year, midfielder Luke Fitzpatrick. Cronin is also without winger Michael Foley, who will miss the remainder of the season through injury.