The Premier title race goes down to the wire
The Blues Supporters Club Senior Player of the Year was Waterford FC's Padraig Amond and he is pictured receiving the Billy McGrath Memorial Trophy from representatives of the McGrath family, Zach Wall, Tracey McGrath, Andrew Ryan, Charlie Reynolds. Robin Reynolds, Cepta Ryan and Owen Power from the Blues Supporters Club. Photos: Noel Browne.
We head to Tallaght on Friday night with our job on the night to spoil a potential title celebration for Shamrock Rovers who can make it five league titles in a row. They need Shelbourne to not win away in Derry and then they have to get all three points against us if they are to make history.
Shelbourne will head into the final game as favourites as they look to win their first league title since 2004. Shels have led for the majority of the season and this game against Derry City was long billed as the game that will decide the title. While that is still the case it is going to played in very different circumstances and probably a different atmosphere also. Until last Friday night it looked like it was going to be almost a shootout between Derry and Shels but Derry hit a rough patch and only won one of their last seven league games to take them from having the title destination in their own hands to being out of the race completely and possibly relying on the FAI Cup final as their only route to European football next season.
For Rovers and Shels there is going to be jubilation or disappointment when the final whistle is blown at around 9:30pm on Friday. Both teams have had opposite type season with Shels flying from the traps and being excellent for the first half of the season while Rovers started slowly and then gained momentum in the second half of the season to give themselves a chance of regaining their title.
Who is going to win the title is anyone’s guess but for us in Waterford we have to believe that Shelbourne will be the winners. We will make sure that we give our all in the game in Tallaght against Rovers and we have to try and upset the potential ten thousand home fans.
It might be our final league game of the season, but we aren’t going on holiday just yet. We have a job to do and all week in training we will prepare for Rovers the exact same as we have prepared for every side this season.
The game will be a great occasion to be involved in and it should whet the appetite of our players to want to be on the other side in coming seasons and to be challenging at the end of the season. There will be no pressure on us in the game and we can play with a freedom which will hopefully help us and be enough for us to get the victory.
We finished our home season in Waterford last Friday as we drew 1-1 with Bohemians. A draw was probably a fair result in the end, and it took an injury time equaliser from us to get the point. Bohs had taken the lead with less than ten minutes left in the game and it took a big effort form us to get the goal late on. We actually could have won the game in the end also. We had a great chance with almost the last kick of the game but a good save from James Talbot in the Bohemians goal made sure that we wouldn’t be winning four from four against Bohs this season.
Obviously, we wanted to win the game to give our home fans a big thank you for their brilliant support throughout the season for us, but it wasn’t to be. After the game it was great to be able to interact with the supporters, especially the younger fans. From speaking to people who have been in the club for years they have been saying that there has been a huge increase in the number of younger supporters at games this season which is brilliant to see. The younger supporters are the future of the club so to get those fans attached and into Waterford FC so early is great and they will hopefully be there for life now.
As the season comes to a close it has been a great first season back in the League of Ireland for me and a great first season back in the Premier Division for the club This Friday night if I am selected will be my 69th game of my season as I had already done a half season in England before I came back. I have loved every moment of the roller-coaster season, and I already can’t wait to get going again next season after a well-earned little break.
