Poor start puts Blues boss under pressure

Waterford United boss Paul O’Brien has admitted that he’ll “probably pay the price” for his sides 4-0 defeat to Mervue United that leaves his promotion hopefuls with just one point from an opening nine on offer.

The manner of the defeat was the biggest downside for O’Brien in which some Blues supporters booed their side off after a performance that saw them ship four goals.

“It’s just unbelievable. You do the preparation, you do the training, you give all the instruction of how you play but once you cross over the white line, the buck stops with me and I’ll probably pay the price for that,” O’Brien said after the game, struggling to come to terms with the manner of the defeat.

“I can’t legislate for that. As a manager you set certain standards but they were way below, way, way below. It’s not acceptable, just not acceptable especially at Waterford United.”

“When you look back on the Finn Harps and Longford Town games, not in my wildest dreams did I expect a result like this, especially from a bunch of players that I went after and picked. You would expect a lot more and it just wasn’t there tonight. As I said, the buck stops with me and I’ll probably pay the price for it.”

O’Brien was asked for the reasons behind his almost defeatist response, the Blues boss said that if standards aren’t met, it’s the manager who is blamed.

“I set certain standards from the players and the club has certain standards. If things go below those standards, somebody has to pay the price. I suppose it (resigning) will be out of my hands. At the end of the day, I have to go away, reflect and sole search. When you look into peoples’ eyes down there you look for honesty. You would have to say to yourself, ‘Am I after doing all I can” and if I go away and say to myself, ‘I could have done more’ then I’ll have to look at my job.”

The Blues manager was also questioned on his team selection that saw Seamus Long, Vinny Sullivan and Dylan Mernagh left on the subs bench for the game.

“When you look at the lads and how they played Tuesday night, that’s the reason. Vinny was carrying a knock from the Longford game and I felt that, no disrespects to Mervue, I could rest Vinny and get him right. He has a cracked rib or something like that and I felt that if I started him, he’d be gone for three weeks.

“You don’t expect the performance that we put in tonight. You expect whatever team you put out to perform whether its Vinny Sullivan, Daragh Walshe, Peter White or Ben Ryan. You expect a performance. At the end of the day, I didn’t get that.  It’s not about the team selection; it’s about the players going out there having the passion and desire.

“If you haven’t got that then I have to question myself but it’s not about team selection because you try to manage the players that you have. I work with players in training and you know by their body language about how they are doing. It’s not about putting eleven players out, they were put out there for a reason.”

O’Brien told of the hurt his players were feeling after the defeat, and apologised to fans for the defeat.

“Peter White, Gavin Kavanagh, Seamus Long and David Breen are in football along time and they don’t legislate that performance so they are looking at the themselves and they are saying that it’s just not acceptable.

“I can’t say anymore than that. I feel so sorry for the fans because they come in and pay to watch us. I’m gutted for everybody. With three games into the season, you’re looking for improvements and you’re looking to set standards but our improvement went back big fold tonight.

“I will always do my utmost and I’ll never throw in the towel. I’ll be positive about it and regroup the players, analysis the videos. I’ll be wanting to get them back together and unless I’m told otherwise, we’ll prepare for the game against Wexford Youths next week.”

When asked whether he would be manager for the game against Wexford Youths, O’Brien concluded: “I’ll always want to be manager and I’ll always want to be manager of Waterford United.  At the end of the day, I’ll never throw in the towel unless I’m told otherwise. I’ll never give up but I think you have to look and reflect. Last year, we learned from our mistakes and hopefully this year, we’ll put them mistakes right.”