[b]Limerick 37 0 – 3 Waterford United[/b]What a difference four days makes. After a pretty comprehensive defeat last Monday, Waterford United cruised to victory tonight against a Limerick side that were made to look very ordinary, and the manner of the win will be a great boost to Gareth Cronin’s men ahead of next week’s tough away Cup tie against Galway United.

Waterford United will be looking to get their season going again when they travel to Jackman Park on Friday night to take on Limerick 37 (KO 7:45pm).A promising run of results has been curtailed in recent days, with just one point collected from the last two matches, a home draw against Athlone and last Monday’s defeat at the hands of Sporting Fingal. Manager Gareth Cronin was left perplexed by his side’s defending in the Fingal game, and by the team’s poor form away from home, which has seen defeats to all three of the other top four sides. He now has to get his charges fired up for the challenge provided by Limerick 37 at Jackman Park. Mike Kerley’s team’s home form has been somewhat indifferent this season, and the Shannonsiders were overcome with relative ease in the match at the RSC back at the start of April, but it remains a tricky away fixture. The depletion of his compact squad, with up to five players absent, only adds to the manager’s problems.

[b]Sporting Fingal 3 – 1 Waterford United[/b]Waterford United were turned over by a purposeful Sporting Fingal tonight, an expensive defeat in more ways than one. Now level on points with Fingal, they find themselves six points adrift of league leaders Shelbourne, and for good measure lost Stephen Quigley to a red card, and Paul McCarthy and Dave Warren to injury, McCarthy very seriously.

Waterford United travel to Morton Stadium to take on Sporting Fingal, for only the second ever occasion, in their rescheduled fixture this Monday, May 26th (KO 7:45pm).

This was a typical away performance with little to show in the first half but stuck to our game plan and after a little talk at half time we went out and upped our game and the match was over within ten minutes!I was delighted with the performance – we haven’t ever gotten much here at Flancare and once we got the goals I thought we were very comfortable. We never looked like conceding a goal and it was certainly one of the most enjoyable and satisfying wins for me as a manager.We want to keep the pressure on the other two[Dundalk and Shelbourne] and we have achieved the first part of what is going to be three difficult games. The game in Athlone was spoiled by the weather so I am hoping that things will be different this time! Our home form is excellent so here’s hoping for three more points!

It wasn�t as glamorous as last week but it was a lot more gratifying in many respects. We were playing against a team that was well organised. Wexford made it very hard to break them down, they made it very difficult for us but it is a good sign of our team that we were able to grind out a result. I�ve said it before that we could have easily dropped two points but we got a great goal and defended well throughout.Wexford play a difficult formation for this division with a 3-4-2-1 setup and it can be very frustrating for players who don�t expect the opposition to be where they are and the lad Hawkins sweeps up very well at the back so it is very difficult to play against them. They battled very hard and they are very fit but I do think we were the better team and we deserved the three points.

We played well tonight but I still think we can do better. I was 80% happy, our final ball at times let us down and if we had chose the right pass at the right time we might have had seven or eight but you can’t complain about a five nil win and a missed penalty on top of that so I am happy enough.I think last week was a lesson to us all because we let our standards drop and the reason that I’m not overly happy is that it’s just three points and we have to go and get another three points next week!There were serious questions asked last Sunday morning. We had a little ‘love-in’ and a few home truths were told, including myself. We all had a look at ourselves over the last few weeks and we weren’t happy with what was going on and we changed a few things and they performed well tonight. But it is only one game – we have Wexford next week, I want three points there, three points the following week against Longford and we’ll keep going until we claw back that Dundalk lead.

Waterford United would like to announce that Assistant Manager Sean Francis offered his resignation following last night’s game against Athlone Town.Francis, who joined the club with Gareth Cronin, offered to step down due to the current financial situation at the Blues in order to minimise the effect on the players.

[b]Waterford United 1 – 1 Athlone Town[/b]Waterford United were left to rue their missed chances tonight, as they failed to overcome a grimly determined Athlone Town and capitalise on another Dundalk slip-up.

Tonight’s attendance will tell me a lot about the Waterford peoples true feelings towards their football club. Since I took over in August 2006, I have constantly been reminded of the clubs glorious past and the wish of the supporters to, win games, play good football and include as many local players as possible.