‘I’m over the moon and so proud of them’ - Coughlan
Waterford head coach Graham Coughlan
Graham Coughlan admitted he was immensely proud of his Waterford FC players after they booked their place in the Club Orange FAI Men’s Cup final with a hard-earned victory over Bohemians at Dalymount Park.
The Blues boss hailed both his squad and the travelling supporters following a night that secured Waterford’s first appearance in the showpiece decider for more than a decade, but insisted the achievement must quickly be put to one side as the club battles to secure Premier Division survival.
“Yeah, look, that's brilliant, that's great. Delighted for the lads, delighted for the club, everybody who's supported the club,” said Coughlan.
“The fans were brilliant. I must pay testament to Bohs as well. I thought the spectacle that both sets of fans put on when the two teams walked out was absolutely brilliant and fitting of the occasion.” The Waterford manager felt the occasion was worthy of a much bigger stage and said both clubs deserved greater attendance for such a significant fixture.
“I would have loved to see the game up in Tallaght where you could have got 8,000-10,000 and the gates could have been split. That would have been nice because the two fans and the two clubs probably deserved that, to be honest.”
Despite the celebrations, Coughlan was keen to stress that Waterford’s league campaign remains the priority.
“The next four weeks here is about trying to survive and trying to secure Premier League status,” he said. “That was my objective coming through the front door and that will be our objective over the next four weeks.” Waterford had to withstand significant pressure during the opening half, with Bohemians dominating possession and creating several opportunities.
“We're probably more comfortable without the ball and that's not being negative,” Coughlan explained. “We knew Bohs were going to have a lot of the ball, so we knew we were going to have to defend.
“You have to have a little bit of luck. You have to ride your luck to get into finals. You have to ride your luck to win titles.” However, he rejected suggestions that Waterford’s first-half escape owed purely to fortune after goalkeeper Stephen McMullan produced a stunning save to deny Bohs.
“Can we put it down to luck? I thought it was a world-class save from Stevie and he's done that for us all season.
“The guys who don't really watch us regularly will think, ‘Wow, that's a help’. But Stevie pulls off saves like that week in, week out for us.” Coughlan admitted he was disappointed with aspects of his side’s first-half performance and believed reaching the interval on level terms proved crucial.
“It was just about getting in at half-time nil-all. I thought if we could get in at half-time nil-all, we'd be in with a right chance in the second half because the first half wasn't us.
“We didn't compete well enough. We didn't land on second balls. We were poor with our distribution. We never gave our strikers anything to go on. Our box entries were really low and not like us.”
The Waterford boss felt the improvements after the break reflected the work carried out by the squad throughout the season.
“The work that the lads put in on the training ground, you've probably seen that. That was evident in the second half. The shape, the organisation, the structure, the blocks, the tackles, the heading.” It was when discussing his players that Coughlan's emotions were most obvious.
“Their work ethic is second to none and that's why I'm delighted for them,” he said.
“I'm absolutely delighted for them as a group, individually and collectively.
“People would have had negative things to say about them and the group stuck together. They showed a little bit of character, a little bit of resilience and they came through a really, really tough test tonight with flying colours.
“I’m over the moon for them because things haven’t been easy.” The former centre-half revealed he had spoken candidly to the squad before kick-off, telling them how proud he was of their efforts.
“I said it to them before the game and I don't even tell my kids that,” he joked.
“I'm a big tough centre-half and sometimes emotions get the better of you. To tell people I'm proud of them, that takes a lot for me to do and that's testament to the group.” When praise was directed towards his own influence since taking charge, Coughlan immediately shifted the spotlight back onto the dressing room.
“That's nice, that's great, but it's the lads that go out on the pitch. It's the hard work they put in. They're the ones that put their bodies on the line.
“When you've got people like Kev Long and Podge and people like that, John Mahon and Hayden Cann, they're unbelievable characters.
“They drive the standards. They push the changing room. They keep everything right. They make my job easy really, to be quite honest.” For all the excitement surrounding a trip to the Aviva Stadium, Coughlan made it clear where his attention lies.
“The Aviva needs to be parked. The Cup needs to be parked. We've got four big, big games before any talk of a Cup final. I'm probably going to bore the living daylights out of you over the next four weeks because I don't want to hear about a Cup final until we've secured our league status.”
