“We still believe as a team that we can make Europe”
Waterford FC captain Barry Baggley pictured with mascot Ryan Flynn.
The games may be running out in the bid to qualify for Europe with a third-place finish in the SSE Airtricity Men’s Premier Division, but Waterford FC skipper Barry Baggley still believes that it could be possible despite the defeat to Derry City in the league on Friday evening last.
Speaking after the game, Baggley said: “We’re very disappointed because I thought that we played really well for large parts of the game. It’s an unfortunate mistake, but mistakes do happen. It’s unfortunate, but we’ll keep our heads up and go again next week.
“It’s hard and it just seems that the luck isn’t going our way at the moment. We’ve got to keep our heads held high because there is another big game next week against Sligo, which we’ll have to be ready for, and that’s where the focus is on now.
“We have to treat it now as eight cup finals to go before the end of the season. We’re still right in the race for Europe. We spoke about it a little bit this week and there’s no point shying away from it. We’re right in the race and our focus is just winning every game step by step to see where it takes us.
“It’s obviously good to get another 90 minutes into the legs for myself. I feel like I’m getting the extra yard of sharpness every week. I thought that I had a decent enough game with Rowan (McDonald) tonight, but we would have obviously liked to get the win.”
Baggley added: “It was a game of two halves with the wind. It was difficult. We had to dig in during the first-half and defend well. They move the ball really well. I thought that we done that and came in at half-time very positive.
“We had the wind behind us in the second-half and we pushed on. I think that we did that in the second-half. We took the game to them a little bit and you could see towards the end. that they were panicking a bit. We want to play like that every week on the front foot. We need to take that into next week.
“We’re proud of the performance because I think that it shows how much we’ve come this season. Over the last few years, Derry have been right up there at the top end of the league, and they’ve won the cup as well.
“They are one of the strong teams in the league and for us to be at this stage of the season competing for Europe against a team like Derry shows how far we’ve come this season. We should all be proud of ourselves, but the job isn’t done, and we’ve got to keep going.
The skipper is also looking forward to representing his country again. “We believe that Europe is there for us. I think that on our day we can beat anyone. We’ve shown that this season. We have to approach the next eight games right. We have the quality in the team to beat anyone and we have to keep the belief going.
“On a personal note, it’s great to be call up for the Internationals coming up. It was obviously very disappointing to miss out through injury, but I’m really happy now to be in the squad for two very good games against England and Ukraine. It’s going to be a great experience.”
