Waterford FC return to the grindstone that is the League Of Ireland Premier Division on Friday night, traveling to face Drogheda at Weavers Park.
Their last league outing was a loss to Galway, but since then the Blues beat Cockhill Celtic in the second round of the FAI Cup and are now safe for round three where they will face Athlone Town next month.
Prior to the Galway loss, the Blues had fallen into a trend of winning a few games, before losing one.
They beat Sligo, Shamrock Rovers and Dundalk before losing to Shels. They then beat Drogheda and Bohemians before losing to Derry, which was followed by a win over Sligo and then another defeat to Shels. Before the Galway loss they had beat Dundalk and St Pats.
The Blues have two wins over Drogheda already in this campaign, winning 4-2 at the RSC and 4-1 at Weavers Park on the second day of the season.
In their last game with Drogheda at the RSC, the visitors led two-nil after the halftime break, needing a Blues fight back to claim a 4-2 win with Podge Amond bagging a hattrick and Daragh Power also scoring.
That game "could have gone very much the other way," says Head Coach Keith Long.
"We won't take anything for granted. We've done our homework as best as we possibly can on Drogheda, albeit that they have made some changes to their team."
His own team will have some changes, too. Sam Sargeant suffered a fractured hand in training and will be on the sidelines for an extended period. Connor Evans picked up a knock and misses this game, as does Rowan McDonald – despite returning to training at the start of this week after recovering from his hamstring injury.
Christie Pattisson resumed training this week and is back in the matchday squad, along with captain Barry Baggley who returns to the travelling party for the first time since March after overcoming his back injury.
Newest signing Sam Glenfield will be available for the game subject to international clearance.
"Buzzing to be back," said Baggley.
"It will be good to get on the pitch tomorrow [Friday] hopefully and see what we can do. It was very frustrating [the injury]. Had a couple of setbacks in the injury too, which kept me out for even longer than we originally thought it was going to be, but now I'm back I'm just delighted and it's good to be back with the lads."
After 24 games in the Premier Division, the Blues have 37 points on the board to hold them in third place. A win in Weavers Park would see them stay third, but would also continue to put the pressure on Derry in second.
WLR will bring you live commentary on Friday evening thanks to McConnell's Toyota Waterford.
