Blues skipper: “It is a terrible pity that so few are coming to watch local lads who are playing so well.”
“Was the crowd up or down from last week?” That was the question that Gareth Cronin asked me as I approached him for his comments on Waterford United’s superb victory over Sporting Fingal on Friday night last. Like all folk who care about the club he is deeply worried about the attendances at the RSC in recent times despite the fact that the team are unbeaten at the venue for almost a year.
“I don’t know what we have to do to get people to come and watch us,” he stated before I asked him about the game. On the match itself, the Blues gaffer was thrilled with the display of his young team. “That was without doubt up in the top five performances since I came to the club.
“We scored two excellent goals and although we did concede another terrible goal, something we did in Wexford and in Athlone we stormed back and showed great character and that pleased be very much. We will have to close out games when we are in front and hopefully tonight will be the start of that process.
“David Grincell was on fire tonight and he is a very special talent. A lot of credit has to get to my former assistant, Sean Francis because he worked long and hard with David before he left the club and all of that work paid off this evening with his first goal. It was a great cross from Stephen Quigley and a lovely knock down by Vinny Sullivan but David still had a lot of work to do and he finished brilliantly.
“Luke Fitzpatrick is just a kid also, I think he is only 21 and he showed wonderful maturity to reach the ball that set up the second goal. A lot of players would have given up the ghost but he kept going and set it up well got David to score. When you look at the lads who finished the game we had a young local side with players like Kieran Fitzgerald, Joe Mulcahy, Willie John Kiely and of course Grincell.
“Surely lads like that that deserve the support of the Waterford people. We now play Limerick next week before we have a break and then its an away game against Dundalk and what a game that is going to be. If we are within two or three points of the leaders going into the last series of games I will be very happy.
“We have been through a lot this season but we are doing fine. Ok, we have thrown away silly points away from home from time to time but all of them by in large are doing well and that pleases me greatly,” beamed a happy Blues’ boss.
Missing supporters
Club captain David Breen was pleased with the result but less so that so few were present to watch their latest home victory.
“That was a massive result for us and we fully deserved to win. Sporting Fingal are a good side but we more than matched them all over the park. David Grincell has waited for his chance and to score two goals on his debut from the start is fantastic.
“We knew they would come back at us when we took the lead and we sat back once again but then Luke Fitzpatrick shown wonderful vision to set up ‘Grinny’ for his second goal and we were not going to lose the lead for the second time. It is a terrible pity that so few are coming to watch players like David Grincell and all of the other local boys who are playing so well.
“We have a brand new stand her but to see so few in that stand is soul destroying for the players. We have gladly taken a pay cut and we may have to take another very soon so I feel we are doing our bit, now it is down to the supporters to come out and get behind the club. If they don’t they may not be a club there in the future.
“The morale within the team is good but it would be even better if there were more people interested in watching us play. David Grincell, John Hayes, Kieran Fitzgerald, Willie John Kiely and Vinny Sullivan are all local players who are doing all they can for the club and will continue to do so despite all of the problems we have been through and the lack of support.
“To see a little over 400 people here tonight is just not good enough, it really is not and unless we get people through the gate we will be in trouble. We could get back into the Premier League and perhaps even European football if we had a few thousand people coning to the games but right now that is not happening.
“We will now work hard all week ahead of the Limerick game and keep the pressure on Dundalk. I believe we can win the league so the Limerick game is vital because we all want to build on this win tonight,” concluded a somewhat frustrated club skipper.
