Fourth-placed Waterford FC welcome St. Pats to the RSC this evening as both sides look to bounce back from losses at the weekend.
The Blues were beaten by Galway at Eamonn Deacy Park on Friday night, with the hosts coming from a goal down to win 2-1.
Padraig Amond scored his second goal in as many games in the first half, but the Blues were pegged back by second-half goals from Vincent Borden and David Hurley as the Tribesmen took the spoils.
That result leaves Galway with the bragging rights in recent meetings between the sides. In the last ten meetings - stretching back to the 2022 season - Galway have won six, Waterford have won two and the sides have drawn twice.
"Disappointed with the goals we conceded," Head Coach Keith Long said at the full-time whistle. "We scored a great goal ourselves, but we knew we were going to be challenged coming here to Galway. They are a very effective side, very polished in terms of what they do, and very purposeful in what they do. Yeah, we're disappointed that we conceded some bad goals and that we've come away without something from the game, albeit I don't think our performance deserved anything from the game."
The first goal they conceded from Borden was avoidable, but nonetheless, a well-taken goal from the Galway midfielder who lost his marker to send home a tidy cross from Aodh Dervin.
"It wasn't good to concede straight away after halftime. It put us on the back foot a bit and it gave them something to push towards," defender Robbie McCourt told WLR Sport. "Look we just need to be better. We know ourselves what we done wrong, we need to probably pass the ball a bit better, but look, we know what we need to improve on for Monday."
The second goal from the hosts will sour the mouth of the Blues backroom staff. A free kick on the edge of the D was dinked across to David Hurley who shot through the Waterford wall to easily beat Sam Seragent in the Blues goal. Not only the fact that they conceded, but the head coach disputed whether it was a free kick or not, to begin with.
"I've watched it back, you know, it's, yeah, I think Barry Baggley is actually fouled," said Long. "Yeah, it's a [point off] contention but we've got to do better after that."
The head coach was left less than pleased by the comeback from the hosts, saying "If we expected anything different from Galway tonight, I think we're living in a different universe, you know, us of all the teams know how good Galway are and tonight we just didn't do enough. The goals we conceded aren't good enough from our point of view. It's an area that we need to improve upon."
Tonight's opponents, St. Pats suffered a similar outcome in their meeting with Derry City on Friday after leading the game a goal to nil, only to lose 2-1 in the end. It marks their second straight loss in the league, leaving them sitting in sixth place, but just a single point off the Blues in the standings.
"They're a good side," Long notes. "Top top players. They've won the FAI Cup and finished in the top three, so I fully expect them to be up there this year and that's the challenge that awaits us on Monday."
Kick-off this evening is at 7.45 pm and we will have on-air updates throughout the evening from Ray Scott.
