Preview: Wexford Youths vs Waterford United

• Simon Carter
• Thu, Jul 17 2008




Wexford Youths take on Waterford United for the fourth time in their short history on Friday night hoping they can finally get their first victory over their local rivals. (kick off 20:00).

The Youths have lost twice this season by a single goal in the league, and last year they lost out in the League Cup and Mick Wallace is eager to end the Blues dominance.

"We've lost our two games in the league against Waterford by a single goal and it promises to be another close affair this time around. Given the proximity of the opposition and the long history of Wexford people going to Waterford in order to see League of Ireland football, there's an extra depth of feeling attached to this fixture. Maybe July 18th 2008 will be the day that the Wexford Youths slay their illustrious neighbour for the first time."

Wexford Youths will be without a trio of players, Stuart Lawlor, Marty Kelly and Garrett Larkin, who are all suffering injuries.

Waterford United and Gareth Cronin will be boosted by the club’s statement that the club’s immediate future is secure. According to a release from the club on Thursday evening, the Management Committee, Manager and players of WUFC have designed and agreed upon a financial plan which should help secure the immediate future of the club and manage to keep the bulk of the current playing squad intact.

The plan entails that each player has taken a wage cut from today to the end of the 2008 season and the back pay owed to each player will be paid between this and the end of the season.

Manager, Gareth Cronin is delighted with the news:“This is a really positive step and should enable us to put our promotion push back on track. The players' willingness to renegotiate terms is a clear sign of their commitment to the club. I just hope the people of Waterford and the business community in the city & county come out and support them over the second half of the season”

On the field of play, Waterford have worked themselves into promotion contention over the last weeks however they could only manage a 0-0 draw with Monaghan United last week. Cronin was disappointed with his side’s display that night however he is confident that his team will be back to found for the Wexford game.

“It's two points dropped. It's was very poor. The second half was a little bit better." "We looked solid at the back, defended well, had a clean sheet again but too many people were sloppy tonight."

"I'm very disappointed but it's our first poor performance in quite a while so we'll move on and we'll beat Wexford next week. We've just got to keep going." "Wexford have a very unusual formation. They play 3-5-2 and they make it very difficult for you so they're a hard team to break down but we'll go there next week and we'll be better than this."

Waterford’s only missing player is Paul McCarthy who is out for four months with an ankle injury.

The match kicks off at 20:00.