The Blues are on the road for the second successive week as they make the trip to face Longford on Saturday afternoon.
Keith Long's team are hoping to make it three wins on the spin with a win at Bishopsgate as they strive to keep putting pressure on the league leaders, Galway.
Longford find themselves seventh in the table with just four wins in 15 outings - they are, however, the only team to beat Galway in 2023. Just two of their four wins have come at home this season (2-0 v Kerry & 1-0 v Galway).
First-team coach David Breen cautions against reading into Longford's league standing, telling WLR Sport that they are a much more dangerous side than seventh place would suggest. "They've drawn against too at home. They've gotten results against the two top teams in the league," says Breen.
The former Blues defender adds that "the only thing with football is you've got to back that up, and they've done that."
The Blues remain 10 points off the Tribesmen in the table with John Caulfield's side facing Athlone on Friday evening. They could extend that lead to 13 ahead of Waterford's Saturday evening kick-off.
In the Blues' last outing - a 4-nil win over Finn Harps - Ronan Coughlan scored twice to make it 18 goals so far this season. The striker remains on top of the First Division top-scorers table, with a 6-goal cushion over Athlone's Franz Pierrot.
Coughlan will not be available for section for Keith Long as he serves his suspension, but Breen wants to see the other players stand up to the plate now since "it's not a one-man show, everyone has to chip in with goals."
Last weekend, Dean McMenamy bagged his first goal of the season, while Conor Parsons got his second of the campaign, but Breen notes that "it can't come from the one source all the time."
The coach adds that "we've created some good chances, not just from our #9 but from other areas on the pitch as well, and you need to take those chances when they come. It's good to see the lads chipping in that will give confidence to the other midfielders, and look, the lads that haven't played and will get a chance to go in a replace Ronan, they'll be chomping at the bit too. They'll want to impress."
The result against Harps marks a record victory for the Blues in Ballybofey, but Breen says the accolade did not so much as raise an eyebrow in training this week.
"No, not at all. We were going there to win a football match and that’s what we done. Were we expecting it to be tough? Yes. Was it tough? It was probably a little easier than we got, but it's a horrible place to go to. I've been on the end of four-nils up there, and you'd have crowds of three or four thousand and they're shouting at you over the wall, and it's a tight ground. I've not had good memories as a player up there, that's for sure. So, to go up there and win comfortably in the end - and it could have been more - it's nice. It's nice to go away from home and get a result and score goals."
We will have live commentary of the game tomorrow thanks to McConnell’s Toyota Waterford. Ray Scott and John Frost will be on your airwaves from 7.15 pm.
