The First Division season has now come and gone.
Waterford FC finished the year in second place - albeit that was all but confirmed since April.
The playoffs now beckon for the second year in a row with Athlone providing the opposition for the two-legged first outing.
Keith Long's side travel to Lissywoolen on Tuesday for the first of those two games, with the return fixture on Saturday at the RSC.
In their four meetings this season, the Blues have a slight upper hand. They have won two, drawn one and lost one, with Waterford scoring seven goals and conceding six.
Athlone have the most recent success having beaten the Blues 2-1 at the RSC in their last meeting. While earlier in the season despite leading 4-0 at home at the half-time break, Athlone managed to reduce that deficit to the minimum by the full-time whistle.
However, Athlone just about squeaked into the playoffs on the final day of the league, drawing 0-0 with Longford at home.
Their record over their last ten games makes for dour reading. Three wins (all of them by a single goal margin, and conceding in all those games), six losses (three of those losses were heavy; 4-1 to Finn Harps, 6-0 to Galway & 4-1 to Treaty) while they drew once.
Thankfully from a Blues perspective, their recent run has been a little better. Four wins, three draws and three losses. They scored in two of those three losses and managed to keep clean sheets in all those wins.
The manager will have wanted more from that ten-game run-in and will now be left to hope that they have enough form and confidence to get the job done over two legs against Athlone. If they are to find a new level, they will have to do it on Tuesday and Saturday.
Worryingly, the soundings from the camp are not positive following last Friday's curtain closer against Treaty. First-team coach Alan Reynolds was less than chipper when speaking to WLR Sport.
"It's funny like, you're looking at fellas to stake a claim and you know, you're not getting it really at times. We admitted it hasn't been good enough. We know that. Like everyone was saying come the playoff we'd be ready and that's the aim. I pity the fans at times coming in to watch some of the games. But, there's a young group in there and actually, if you're hard on them and keep demanding, sometimes they can go under and go into their shell a bit."
