Marc Bircham has his first repeat fixture of the season this evening when he takes his side to Derry for a meeting with Declan Devine's Candystripes.
His opening game with the Blues resulted in a 1-nill loss at the RSC amid a covid outbreak in the squad. Two more losses would follow (Finn Harps 2-1, Bohemians 3-0) but then the new manager lift finally took effect with an impressive 3-0 beating of Bohemians. That was followed up by a 3-1 defeat of Dundalk.
Since then Shamrock Rovers stamped their Champion status all over Waterford boots with their 4-2 drubbing of the Blues and Longford confirmed their last place status when they lost 2-1 at the RSC. Having played the then league leaders Shamrock Rovers, Birchams team faced the new league leaders St Pats at home and held Stephen O' Donnell's side to a draw.
All in all, the report card in recent games makes for more reassuring reading.
Bircham is now heading into this eight-game in charge with the landscape vastly different from when he began. The players seem more content, the fans are more at ease with the direction the team is headed and a new owner at the RSC has breathed some new life into what had become stagnant.
Before he gets on the bus to Derry, Bircham spoke with Matt Keane about his first game in charge of the team against the same side, "That was a difficult one because as you know, with the quarantine and COVID and only having thirteen players and then hen the goal then after two minutes, it was hard. We was unlucky not to get anything out of that game".
Ahead of kick-off this evening, Derry will have to contend with a worrying statistic. They are yet to register a win at the Brandywell this season. Six draws and three losses makes for worrying reading if you're a Derry supporter. Nonetheless, they are still seventh in the table and just two points off Dundalk in sixth.
Waterford recent run of form (2W, 2D, 1L) would indicate that they are more likely to go out and try to win the game than play for a draw - someting echoed by the manager, "We're going to try and get at them the best way that we can, we want to improve every week, there was things in last week's game that we need to improve on."
"Every week, we seem to be getting a little bit better and our fitness is up there and how we want to play. The last game we played with Derry was so hard because lads hadn't trained for nearly two weeks - they'd only had one and a half sessions. So we couldn't press them we couldn't do much of it, but we're in a much better place this time around."
"I think it's only about five or six weeks [since he took charge] and how far we've come as a team where we're playing the league leaders - St Pats, ok they've had a man sent off, but we're gutted we've not won the game. So that shows how far we've come mentally and physically as a team"
Joking about the level of work that goes on during training sessions, Bircham has little sympathy for players who might find it taxing.
"A day off for me is when they're finished by half twelve or one o'clock and they can go home. When we come in, even if we learn one thing, or we can get that 10% better for that one day, adding that altogether over the season, that's how much you can improve."
"Days off for me? No. It's playing football. I'd want to do that on my days off anyway."
"They're not working their fingers to the bone. Okay, we've had a couple of two/three-hour sessions per week of just pure football, but it's just to get us better as individuals in the team"
