Cathal Dowd
Waterford FC manager John Coleman described the Derry City team that hit his side for seven last night as “Rabid dogs” and that they “Smelled blood” at the Brandywell in the SSE Airtricity Premier Division.
Derry demolished Waterford 7-2 with striker Liam Boyce grabbing a hat-trick and teammate Michael Duffy picking up four assists and a goal in a man of the match display.
Derry raced into a 4-0 lead after 40 minutes, but refused to dim their scintillating attacking display in the second half. Despite a Padraig Amond brace, the Blues were powerless to stop their Northern opponents striking thrice more in the second half and inflict upon Waterford their heaviest defeat since 2021.
Coleman knew his side wasn’t up to the standard and was apologetic in the face of the poor result, “They were very good tonight, you get in games where teams are 4-0 down at half time and the other team takes their foot off the gas. They didn’t; they were like rabid dogs, and they ran all over us. Firstly, I’ve got to apologise to the fans, it’s a long, long trip, we know because we have done it. They came here and were brilliant all night, stayed with us, and most of them clapped us off at the end. I would be absolutely livid if I were a Waterford fan,” he said.
“Tonight was very, very rough for us. We got the basics all wrong, we didn’t compete well enough,” admitted Coleman, who has now only won one game of the last eight in the Waterford dugout. “The honeymoon period is probably over with the fans now, for me, and the honeymoon period with how well the players have done for us. We might have to look at bringing other players in, and that might have to be accelerated because we might have got a little carried away with the way we started, myself and Danny, when we came”.
With this win, Derry claimed solo second place in the table, while Waterford fell further off the pace of the European places and, considering their current form, are now probably more concerned with looking over their shoulders to Sligo Rovers in 9th.
Coleman didn’t want to make excuses to the travelling support, instead insisting he and his team must take responsibility, “We lost more or less every tackle we competed for tonight and four or five of them resulted in goals, so its bitterly dissapointing but I’m not going to try and pacify our fans with words. I’m not going to try and talk my way out of it or worm my way out of it. I’ve got to face the music. Tonight was nowhere near good enough and totally unacceptable”.
Waterford will face Cork City next in the league, in a Munster derby that both sides will be desperate to win to kickstart some life into the second half of their season.
“It’s a massive game,” said Coleman. “It’s about how we respond, and I know what way I want to respond, but we have to look at ourselves first. I’m not going to just throw the players under the bus. We have to ask ourselves, did we pick the right team, did we prepare them right, did our game plan work? Well, it certainly didn’t. So we have to question ourselves before we question anyone else”.
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