Long’s survival mission is accomplished
Waterford FC Head Coach Keith Long was happy that his side managed to keep a cleansheet against Drogheda United.
Waterford FC Head Coach Keith Long is happy that his side have guaranteed their safety in the SSE Airtricity Men’s Premier Division on their return back to the top division as the scoreless stalemate against Drogheda ensured the point that they needed to stay up.
The Blues were challenging near the top of the table during the first-half of the season, but with recent results tapering off somewhat, they were bringing to be dragged into the relegation dogfight.
Speaking after the game, Long said: “It wasn’t a good spectacle for the supporters if the truth be told as I felt it was a poor game overall, but I thought overall that it was a good and honest performance by us.
“The game lacked quality, but I suppose what we’re pleased about is the fact that we’ve kept a cleansheet, worked really hard, and it was a very honest performance. We huffed and puffed a little bit, but we were much better in the second-half.
“We showed a little bit more ambition in the second half. Maybe we didn't move the ball quick enough, maybe we didn't execute the final pass, and maybe didn't have enough in terms of quality in the final third to ask questions of Drogheda.
Long added: “We've got a positive result tonight, and we're in the Premier Division next year. We want to be a stable Premier Division football club. We can see how much squads have strengthened across the league. You can see how, how level the playing field is in terms of squads.
“Every team has good players. Every team has qualities of their own and strengths of their own. So there's no easy games. There's no gimmies in this league. We've done our job. Primarily our number one objective was to stay in this division. We've done that, and hopefully we can try and continue to build and move forward.
“You can't really fault the players efforts. We haven't drawn enough games this year. We've either won or lost. I think tonight brings us up to five in terms of draws throughout the season, but we haven't had enough cleansheets.
“We were working with the boys all week in terms of trying to keep a cleansheet. We went back to four at the back for tonight so I'm pleased with that. That's the basis for any performance keeping cleansheets, but listen it wasn't a good spectacle for the for the supporters that have come through the gates tonight.” The Head Coach was happy with the point that secures Premier football for 2025. “We've done our job and we've picked up a point against one of the in-form teams in the country at the minute. They're very hard to play against, and they've shown why they're in this division year after year with the resilience that they have in their group.
“Drogheda have a never-say-die attitude. They're traits that you need to have in any team, and that's something that we can look to. If we want to be a consistent and stable Premier Division team, we have to have those fight and spirit, which are qualities needed.
“Some of the recent results haven't been what we would have liked that’s for sure. We started off the season in decent form. We won a lot of games. We were at the top end of the table in terms of the form guide in the first-half of the season.
“Sometimes we're in top position in terms of form guide. Over the last number of weeks, our form has dipped and we tapered off. We wanted to try and finish the season off positively, and like I said, we've got a positive result tonight.” The Blues will still have a say in where the title will end up with games against top sides Shelbourne and Shamrock Rovers something that Long is looking forward too. “Those are the games that you want to try and be involved in. We'd like to be obviously competing ourselves for European places like we did for long, periods of the season.
“Unfortunately, things have fizzled out a little bit for us, but we'll give the next three games a right go. We won't be torn enough to make up the numbers. We don't want to be bridesmaids in any wedding or any sort of party coronation call of what you will.
“We want to try and turn up put in a good performance. We need to be better tonight when we travel to Shelbourne, who are top of the table, on Friday. We struggled up there the last day so we need to improve in terms of performance up in Tolka Park.”
