Needless to say the Waterford United manager Gareth Cronin was in a rather downbeat mood following the full time whistle at the RSC on Friday night last. He was only to aware that the two points dropped could prove very costly come the end of the season. “We were awful during the first half, although we were leading at the interval. I felt we played much better in the second half even with ten players but we missed too many chances to win a football match. Vinny (Sullivan) had a couple of opportunities to score but unfortunately it was one of those nights. I set a target of six points from this game and next week’s game against Wexford so this is an opportunity missed, there is no doubt about that.
“I can understand how the referee gave a free kick when Stephen Quigley tackled the Monaghan player because he was a little high but no way was it a red card offence. Stephen is not in any way a dirty player but referee’s these days have cards in their hands ready to display them in a split second without really thinking about what they are doing. A decision like that one tonight could cost us the league title”.
The Blues manager admitted that he had no option but to change things around when Quigley saw red. “We had to go to a 3-3-3 formation and in doing that we were going to get stretched at times and Pakie Holden produced a great save to prevent us from losing the game. I suppose you could say we were lucky not to have lost the match but on the other hand we could have won it had we taken our chances. We will have to defeat Wexford now and then go to Tolka Park and win there also against Shelbourne.
“I was unhappy by the way we played against Kildare County in our last game but I am not as unhappy this time despite dropping two points. We will up our training this week ahead of those two big games. Of course I was not happy with the goal we conceded because it should have been kicked away into row Z but look there are still 30 points to play for and we are still very much in the hunt. We will fight until the bitter end, I can promise you that” concluded Gareth Cronin.
