Reynolds: “Silly mistakes cost us.”
Waterford FC’s form has slipped just as Shamrock Rovers have begun to gain momentum in the race for European football, with last Friday night’s 3-0 defeat to St Patrick’s Athletic leaving the Blues two points behind the Hoops with six Premier Division matches remaining. Following defeat in Richmond Park, Blues boss Alan Reynolds was understandably downbeat while reflecting on a tough night in Dublin. “We’re bitterly disappointed after that game, but I didn’t think it was a three-nil (performance). I thought that in the first half of the game we played some really good football at times. We needed to score in that time, I felt, but we didn’t do that.”
Courtney Duffus on the attack during last Friday's Premier Division defeat to St Patrick's Athletic
Reynolds added: “I thought our strikers were good in the first half and we were decent, but we were non-runners in the second half to be honest and that’s disappointing. We just didn’t get going and silly mistakes cost us in the end I thought. We’ve got to defend better than we did tonight.“We’ve conceded from set pieces and that’s disappointing. It looks as if one went off Izzy’s (Akinade’s) head, but we didn’t defend them well and we can do better at it. It’s something that we’ll be looking to put right and we need to learn as we keep going.”
“We did everything right doing the course of the week, but you win some and you lose some. Today we’ve lost to some silly mistakes. I felt that we needed to score in the first half when we were on top, but we couldn’t manage to do that and you can’t give away sloppy goals.” Alan Reynolds said the progress made this season could not be lost sight of, adding: “It’s just important now that people get behind us. We need the fans behind us and the players will go that extra bit for the next six or seven weeks. We have a cup match to prepare for against UCD (on Friday night, kick-off: 7.45pm) and we know that won’t be an easy game.“We’ll dust ourselves down after tonight and look forward to the cup match. UCD had a good win tonight and they’ll be a tricky side to beat. We’ll worry about the rest of the league after the cup game and it’s a game that we’ll be looking to take care of.” Alan Reynolds concluded: “Tonight, we’re disappointed, but it’s my job and the staff’s job to try lift it for the game next week. We’ll work hard at trying to put it right next week and hopefully we’ll be able to do that against UCD.”
