Waterford United -v- Limerick

• Andrew Cunneen
• Thu, Mar 08 2012




WATERFORD UNITED

Following an opening day demolition at the hands of Wexford Youths, Waterford will need to treat their tie with Limerick as a new start to the year. Morale would have taken a severe blow following the humiliation at Ferrycarrig Park last Friday and Waterford will surely look to stun their Munster rivals in the RSC.

 

Packie Holden returns from suspension for this one, but United captain John Frost will miss out following his two yellow cards last weekend. Gary Keane, Adam McSherry and David Breen all look set to miss the tie for the home side, while question marks hang over the fitness of Seamus Long; he is listed as a 50/50.

 

Paul O’Brien himself admitted his mistakes last week, and is determined for a better performance this time around. "We have to knuckle down and sort this out. I'll look at my own performance in this, the preparation, the team I put out, the mistakes we made and I'll try and correct all that. We'll have to go back and regroup now. We've got to show some pride now and dust ourselves off for the next game. I know we've got Limerick next [but] we'll be much stronger next week."

 

LIMERICK FC

Following their first opening day win since 2007, Limerick are once again hot favourites to pick up all three points against Waterford United this weekend. While historically having a fairly poor history of results in the RSC, Limerick will look to correct that statistic on Friday evening as they look to secure back to back wins from their opening two fixtures.

 

A two-one victory on the opening day saw Rory Gaffney net his first competitive goal for the side since signing midway through last season. It was the first half performance of Pat Scully’s side that will have the fans expecting a victory in Waterford, albeit a fairly slack second half display allowed Harps back into it.

 

Speaking to new signing Garry Sheahan after the match, he spoke highly of his teammates’ performance. "You couldn’t ask for much more. The opening night of the season is never easy, and all eyes are on us at the moment, so there's an added pressure to get the results. Things are never perfect coming out of pre-season, there's always some tweaking to be done. Based on last night’s performance there's probably less tweaking required than in previous years, so overall things are looking good.”

 

Limerick look set to be without influential full back Shaun Kelly through illness while Garbhan Coughlan and David Ryan are still not at full fitness. Sheahan may be a couple of weeks away yet, but a place on the bench isn’t out of reach for the former Wexford striker.

 

Referee: Sean Grant (Wexford).

 

 

MATCH STATS

In this fixture last year, Limerick prevailed by two goals to one thanks to a Denis Behan brace.

 

Prior to that win, Limerick had not won in the RSC for over five years.

 

Limerick-born John Frost swapped Shannonside for the RSC this season, despite being named the supporters’ player of the year in Limerick. He will be suspended for this tie

 

BETTING

Waterford United 5/1 Draw 13/5 Limerick 8/15

 

PREDICTION:

A 3-1 away win for Limerick.

 

Waterford United Injury News: Gary Keane (broken metatarsal), Adam McSherry (knee), David Breen (ankle), Seamus Long (thigh).

Waterford United Suspensions: John Frost.

 

Limerick FC Injury News: Garbhan Coughlan, David Ryan, Shaun Kelly.

Limerick FC Suspensions: None.