Amond wins the May player of the month award
Pádraig Amond of Waterford FC poses with his SSE Airtricity/SWI Player of the Month Award for May 2024 at the RSC on Monday. Photo: Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile.
Waterford FC centre forward Padraig Amond has been rewarded for his performances during the month of May that saw the Blues win five games out of six after he was named as the SSE Airtricity SWI Player of the month award winner.
Speaking to the Waterford News & Star on winning the award, Amond said: “Obviously I’m delighted to get the award and it’s a great personal honour for me, but this is on behalf of the team to be honest with you. It was an unbelievable month for the lads.
“Everyone on the team and the performances that they put in enabled me to get it. I think that one of us was going to get it because of the way we played all month as a collective unit. It’s my first award so I’m delighted personally, but more importantly, it was a great month for the club.
“I think that it’s important for a club like Waterford when you’re outside of the Premier League and you see how much that we’ve put back into it. We’ve put in such a monumental effort in the first-half of the season to be in this position that we’re in, which credit has to go to everyone involved in the club.”
“You have to credit the manager first and foremost for his recruitment. For getting these players together and having us the way we’re playing. You can see with the performances of the lads at the moment how much we want to play for the manager and how enjoyable it is together.
“It’s just brilliant to be involved with the lads that I’m involved with. They are fantastic teammates on and off the pitch, which doesn’t happen all the time, but when it does happen its important. We go into training every day and we work as hard as we can. We enjoy it, we have a laugh at the right time, and it’s really good to be involved with the lads.” After reaching 11 goals for the season, Amond felt it should have been number 12 against Shelbourne. “I think from what I’ve just seen, it should be 12 goals for the season. I felt at the time I was onside and the video that I’ve seen probably confirms that for me.
“I can’t criticise anyone because I’ll get into trouble, but yes I think that it should be a 12th goal. All I’ll say is that he probably felt that he had a clear view of it and he was adamant that I was offside, but it is what it is. It wasn’t given and that’s the be all and end all.
“I think that this is a great opportunity for us to kick on now after the midseason break. I think that with the effort that we put in from the first-half of the season that it would be an absolute shame if we didn’t take advantage of it in the second-half.”
“There’s going to be moments where we’re going to go through sticky spells. We’re over halfway in the season and we’re there on merit. I think that we’ve got to believe in ourselves and we’ve got to believe that we’re there for a reason.
“I think that we’re good enough to mix it with the top teams in the league. The only one that we’ve probably let ourselves down with this season is Derry. For whatever reason that is it’s just happened, but we’ve got to make sure that we come back from the break that we’re ready to go.
“I’m looking forward to the break and spending some time with my family. We’ll look forward to the game against Dundalk and they are on a nice bit of form at the minute. I think that we’ve got to make sure that we look after ourselves in the break and ready for when we return.”
