Athlone Town  1 - 2  Waterford United (full time)

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0 mins – Match kicks off in overcast but dry weather, 5 minutes later than scheduled. 2 up front for Blues as Cummins starts there. Grincell is right wing. Kearney holding midfielder, Browne centre-back. Attendance about 300.

7 mins – Good break by Blues, Kearney set Kiely free into right channel, good low pull back for Cummins but he shot well wide of near post.

14 mins – Dangerous free kick from Athlone’s right, headed clear at the near post by Browne.

15 mins – Waters cross from left nodded on by McCarthy to Grincell 10 yards out at acute angle, but his chip back goalwards was tame. Continue reading »

Waterford United travel to Lissywoollen to take on Athlone Town in their second away jaunt of the year this Sunday, March 29th (KO 5.00pm).

Athlone have made an impressive opening to the season, unbeaten in the first three matches, with 7 points to their credit, albeit none of them against any of the fancied sides in the division. Under new boss Brendan Place they have got off to a flyer, a far better start than that of the side which went on to draw with United on all four occasions last season. Continue reading »

U-21 Friendly: Republic of Ireland  2 - 1  Spain

 Attn: 3,400

Mayor Jack Walsh meets the teams

There wasn’t a blue shirt to be seen, on the pitch at least, as Don Givens’ Ireland U-21 team recorded an exceptional victory over their illustrious Spanish counterparts at the RSC tonight.

In front of a huge and partisan home crowd, the heart and industry of the young Boys in Green proved more than a match for the Spanish flair and virtuosity, and in truth they were full value for the result. The game was also a welcome return for local hero Eddie Nolan, who captained his side superbly from centreback, winning the man of the match vote in the process.

 Spain applied the pressure from the off, and had the first clear-cut chance when Jeffren was set clear by a clever Daniel Parejo pass through Darren Dennehy’s legs on ten minutes, but Shane Redmond was equal to his low strike. Ireland in their turn began to get some joy down the flanks through Alan Judge and Jay O’Shea, and it was a move down the right side that set up Owen Garvan for a snap shot from 20 yards that flew just wide after 18 minutes. Continue reading »

An A4 size poster for the upcoming Longford Town match on April 4th is now available to download on the multimedia page, here.

Hopefully there’ll be some of you who can print one or more off and get them posted up all around the town and county – at work, at school or college, in pubs, shops and takeaways, in community centres, clubhouses and sports halls, and anywhere else that you can think of that might be appropriate, all help is greatly appreciated.

Let’s get the word out to come out Saturday week and support the Blues!

Right click and ’save as’ to download the A4 match poster for the Blues v Longford Town game.

Waterford United  0-1  Shelbourne

Waterford United will simply not believe they have lost this match tonight. On top for long spells of the game, they failed to turn their dominance into goals, and they paid for that when undone by an opportunist strike with minutes remaining.

An unchanged Blues side started the brighter, though it was the visitors that posted the first chance of note. As a marauding Richie Baker forced Alan Carey to knock the ball behind, the corner required Kenny Browne to be at his sharpest to head away at the far post from the lurking Peter Hynes. United responded with a Willie John Kiely snapshot on the turn after a neat cross from Carey down the right picked out Kevin Waters at the back post. Gary Dunphy spurned a good chance moments later, blazing wide from the edge of the area when nicely set-up with a clever John Kearney header, and Kiely was next to try his luck with a well struck shot from distance which unfortunately was as well wide. Continue reading »

Waterford United have received a bye to the second round of the newly sponsored League Cup following the announcement of EA Sports as title sponsor of the competition today.

The Blues will meet the winner of the round one tie between FC Carlow and Cobh Ramblers in Pool 1.

The full draw for the First and Second rounds of the 2009 EA SPORTS Cup made today is

Pool 1
First Round Draw
Limerick v Wexford Youths               Match 1
Kerry League v Cork City                  Match 2
FC Carlow v Cobh Ramblers              Match 3

Second Round Draw
Winner of Match 3 v Waterford United
Winner of Match 2 v Winner of Match 1

Pool 2
Preliminary Round Draw
Kildrum Tigers v Finn Harps              Match 1
Salthill Devon v Mervue United         Match 2

First Round Draw
Galway United v Winner of Match 2             Match A         
Castlebar Celtic v Winner of Match 1            Match B
Byes:  Derry City & Sligo Rovers

Second Round Draw
Winner of Match A v Derry City
Sligo Rovers v Winner of Match B

Pool 3
First Round Draw
Shelbourne v Dundalk                                    Match 1
Monaghan United v Sporting Fingal              Match 2
Bray Wanderers v Drogheda United              Match 3
Bye: Bohemians

Second Round Draw
Winner of Match 3 v Winner of Match 2
Bohemians v Winner of Match 1

Pool 4
First Round Draw
Athlone Town v Longford Town                   Match 1
Shamrock Rovers v Kildare County               Match 2
Tullamore Town v U.C.D.                              Match 3
Bye: St. Patrick’s Athletic

Second Round Draw
St. Patrick’s Athletic v Winner of Match 2
Winner of Match 1 v Winner of Match 3

The winners of the Second Round matches qualify for the Quarter-Finals of the EA SPORTS Cup. The draw for the Quarter-Finals will be conducted on an open basis with no geographical factors taken into consideration. The dates for the rounds of the competition are:

Match Dates
Preliminary Round                  Monday/Tuesday, 30th /31st March
First Round                             Monday/Tuesday, 13th /14th April
Second Round                        Monday/Tuesday, 4th /5th May
Quarter-Finals                         Monday/Tuesday, 18th /19th May
Semi-Finals                             Monday/Tuesday, 3rd / 4th August
Final                                        Saturday, 26th September