The Match
The push for a great escape came to a close last night in Richmond Park. The students became the teachers, banishing the Blues to the first division for 2022.
After a chaotic week within the club, where the manager who had done so much to secure safety was sacked after a dispute with the owner, it was ironic that two products of the Waterford academy were the ones who did the damage.
Goals from Colm Whelan and Dara Keane were enough to undo the early lead claimed by Anthony Wordsworth.
The result brings down the curtain on what's been a year of ups, downs, and everything in between.
Goalkeeper Brian Murphy who was visibly upset and annoyed after the full-time whistle spoke to the media, having had little time to process what had happened.
I've been relegated a couple of times in my career with probably bigger clubs over in England. You saw what football means to Waterford over the last couple of months, when crowds would come back, we were filling the place. There was a great connection, again between the club and the manager and the players. We haven't had that since the last time the club was bought at the start. It's just such a shame that we have to go out the way we have done tonight, you know, we fell short.
Blues fans would have been sure that they were in for a nerve easing night after just the opening minutes. Anthony Woodsworth struck home in the fourth minute to rapturous applause from the travelling support.
The goal that has the Blues 1-0 up early on - listen live on https://t.co/680tDxMHTl ⚽️💙 https://t.co/ACTO8Z91dk
— WLR (@wlrfm) November 26, 2021
It didn't take UCD long to get into the game and claim back some control. Dara Keane found some space on the far post and with Liam Kerrigan sending it in across the goalmouth, it was the Waterford academy product Keane who connected to equalise.
Dara Keane levels for @UCDAFC!
Andy Myler's side responded well after going a goal down and they've found a way back into the game after Keane got on the end of a great ball from Liam Kerrigan.@WaterfordFCie 1-1 @UCDAFC
Sign up 📺 | https://t.co/vfkMjbvRwA#LOITV | #LOI pic.twitter.com/aEiWE1fYZN— SSE Airtricity League (@SSEAirtricityLg) November 26, 2021
The Blues players were rattled following the equaliser, and while they made every effort to fight for the lead, the week's torment had clearly taken its toll on a squad that was mentally and physically tired after a very long season. Murphy told the gathered media that the off-field issues this week had been hard to shake.
It had a massive effect on us. We worked so hard to get in this position and we shot ourselves in the foot again. I appreciate they got a manager over for two days, but I'm just a bit angry, to be honest, and I'm not going to elaborate on it tonight because it's raw. We worked so hard since Mark came in. We fell short, but we've been falling short for a few weeks now. We have a small squad and we've worked so hard. I came home to play for my hometown club at the end of my career and, you know, possibly in my last game for the club; I don't know yet. There's a lot of young lads in there that just needed guidance this week, and it was late in the week that things were sorted out. It's just very raw at the moment. I just don't know what to say, to be honest.
While the game was still ongoing, the death knell sounded before halftime when goal poacher Colm Whelan found the Waterford defence in disarray and pounced on a loose ball to take a 2-nil lead. A lead they would not relinquish.
What a comeback by @UCDAFC - The Students now lead!
Who else? Colm Whelan was in the right place, at the right time, to tap the ball home. A big turnaround at Richmond Park...!@WaterfordFCie 1-2 @UCDAFC
Sign up 📺 | https://t.co/vfkMjbvRwA#LOITV | #LOI pic.twitter.com/PmYmbLYUt5— SSE Airtricity League (@SSEAirtricityLg) November 26, 2021
The Year That Was
Try as they might, Ian Hendon's newly acquired team were left wondering what might have been. A second-half sprinkled with chances and a late surge from the team to try and stop the inevitable was not enough to claim back the goal they so badly needed.
When the full-time whistle sounded, it was the Students who celebrated like it was RAG week, while the Blue jerseys in Richmond Park slumped and faced the turf; the reality setting for what lay ahead of them.
The situation could have been so much different.
What if, what if, what if?
What if Sheedy and Newell hadn't been put in charge last December?
What if the dispute with Bircham and the owner had been kept in-house?
It's hard to know if any of these situations, dealt with differently would have made any difference to the end of the season, but if we look at the results from May onwards, it's hard to deny that the team would not be fighting a relegation battle. They may have even been fighting a battle at the correct end of the table.
We probably shot ourselves in the foot in the last few weeks in terms of getting results when we were in winning positions and we just couldn't hold on to it. That's probably where our group is at really. We have a small squad, a young squad, and a little bit of experience, but UCD were just very good tonight. No excuses on the football pitch, we just weren't at our best or how we've been playing over recent weeks. In football, whether you deserve it or not, you get what you deserve and that's it.
The Year To Come
For the year ahead, the Premier Division will have a very different look. No team from Munster will feature in the top flight in the 2022 season. If you stick a pin in the map just below Tallaght Stadium and draw a line to the west coast, there is not one team below that line who will play in the Premier next year. A problem in itself.
The Blues will be battling in the Southern heavy first division for the next twelve months. Cobh, Cork City, Wexford, Treaty United and Waterford will make up the numbers from this part of the country, while Shelbourne, Galway, Bray, Athlone and Longford will provide the firepower from the rest of the country.
With players contracts now up for debate, it remains to be seen who will be wearing a blue jersey by the time games resume. Murphy, who missed a significant portion of this season due to an off-field difference with the previous management team isn't sure of where he will be next year.
I don't know whether they want to keep me in the first division. I don't know. I've ambition to play on but as I said, it's raw at the moment. In 90 minutes or I suppose over the course of the season it's been chaotic in the club for a while, to say the least. Since everything changed, and the club was bought and everything like; you walk down the street and so many people come up and say 'the buzz about the place' - people are going to the games again, they haven't been at games for years. It's just a great positivity around even from the press. I've been away for 20 years of my career so I've not been here much, but always keep an eye in and that.
You have to go back a long time for that buzz. It's ended tonight, I'm sure the club will bounce back and I suppose everyone has to really assess where they're going with their career and where they want to be, but it's kind of hard to talk about at the moment. It's just so raw.
The Players
Taking the whole season into perspective, you really must admire the players for everything they have thrown at this.
It's been manic, and while fans or ourselves in the media are sitting by and following the stories, it's these players who are living it day-to-day.
The incidents this year have been crazy to think back on.
We started in December of last year with Sheedy and Newell, which ended in the manner it ended with reports of a nasty training ground bust-up at the root of it. We then had Bircham who came in mid-May. That was shortly before the covid outbreak which saw the U19's fielded against Drogheda. The club was sold. The club was bought. The fans got behind the new ownership/management combo en-mass. There were fireworks set off at the RSC. Days before the biggest game they could play, the owner fires the manager, and ultimately, the team finish up with the toughest of pills to swallow and the quietest of bus rides home to Waterford.
For what was at stake for the club; in any walk of life, the week we had, that shouldn't happen when a massive game is coming up. I don't know the ins and outs of exactly what happened. I'm a player and paid to play football and that's it like, but no, to say did it disrupt this? It did but there's no denying UCD were the better team tonight. We scored early and just couldn't get going in terms of how we wanted to play and I'm just so disappointed for that group of players. Some great young lads that worked so hard. If you look at the form over the last 20 games, we've been pretty good like, we would have been pushing for Europe if we didn't have to start we had.
