Waterford maintain superb form to defeat oldest rivals
John O’Connor at the RSC
On a cold, wet evening it was great to see over 3,000 people turn up to see the Blues defeat Shamrock Rovers 2-1 at the RSC on Friday last, especially when it would have been all too easy to hug the fire and watch the game on RTE 2 television.
There was a great atmosphere on the night added to by a sizeable crowd that travelled down from Dublin to support Rovers; the last time we played the Hoops in the Premier Division was back in 2007.
Courtney Duffus was the two-goal hero as Waterford FC defeated Shamrock Rovers at the RSC on Friday last
The RSC is one of the best grounds in the country and it looked great on television. Visiting fans and media were impressed with the facilities overseen by operations manager, Tony Burke, and his team.
The official match programme is also one of the best being produced in the country at present so congratulations to editors Des and Ian Clancy and all the Media Team led by communications manager, Mark Hill.
All in all, it was a great night for young and old alike and it will even better when the weather improves.
A win is a win so nobody from Waterford was downhearted as they trudged home in the driving rain but during the game the Fourth Official managed to seriously annoy all the patrons in the main stand.
For some reason, every time there was a substitution he showed the relevant numbers to the crowd in the new stand but never turned around to show the details to the people behind him. Stadium announcer Michael Butler saved the day by making the information available.
One wag suggested that the Fourth Official was preoccupied telling Blues manager Alan Reynolds, to stay inside his allocated area!
Incidentally, the atmosphere was far removed from the days when, in addition to the genuine Rovers fans, a small battalion of troublemakers used to arrive by train and be flanked by Gardaí as they paraded in procession to and from Kilcohan Park leaving a trail of broken windows and kicked-in doors in their wake. Good riddance to that.
