Waterford FC Thread

Deisegodeo

It is so frustrating, seemed like things were coming together nicely a few weeks ago. It would be a disaster if we go down, that first division is tough going and hard to get out of with cork, Galway, treaty, bray, longford, etc. All we can do is hope the players get it together for one massive effort on Friday night. Emotions will be running high and should be a big blues crowd there.

Squidvicious

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118213583#Comment_118213583

Div.1 will be hard to get out of no doubt. A lot of money behind Galway and Cork. I can see Treaty getting money too given that JP McManus is behind them. I do wonder how deep Forrest's pockets are because deep pockets will be needed if we drop to Div. 1 - inevitably, there will be less gate money and presumably little or nothing from TV either. I appreciate there's not much TV money currently but I'm sure that whatever we get is a help.

PTH2009

https://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/soccer/arid-40751505.html

Forrest must have a decent bit of money or maybe he's a friend

Tbh don't care who takes over once we win on Friday

hardybuck

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118216106#Comment_118216106

There are a huge amount of coaches and managers in the UK looking for work. Forrest as a Londoner unsurprisingly will be drawing from his network there going forward.

Baptism of fire for the lad, best of luck to him.

BuildTheWall

Whatever about the sacking and the reasons behind it... the optics alone are absolutely terrible. Bircham coming out with a statement that he's suspended and then the club notifying him of a sacking over twitter. I can only imagine it was a personal falling out, you'd think it would have been better for everyone involved if they had just waited until after Friday.

skaface

The club that keeps on giving 🤣

Wanderer2010

His style of management was very old school as well, and its been obvious for months now that a sizeable number of lads just dont like him and were just working to rule. Nobody wins in that situation.

skaface

181563522_4409741262390696_8557948447810217189_n.jpg

Best of luck to the lads tonight

BLUEARMY ⚽💙

hardybuck

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118217276#Comment_118217276

I get the impression that there's a handful of fragile players in that squad who don't really have the capacity to handle too much pressure, and to a certain extent that's how they ended up in Waterford in the first place.

Bircham has played at the top level, coached at a high level, and can probably spot lads cutting corners a mile off. As a manager you're depending on these guys to deliver, so it must be very frustrating if you feel like they're letting you down.

Sheedy and Sheridan probably had the same issue, but they must take some of the blame too and in fairness none of them would have been here if their managerial careers were going terribly well either.

Four lads coming back from suspension tonight, they should be beating UCD tonight on paper. Hoping for the best.

Deisegodeo

Huge game for the club tonight, nowhere near ideal preparation in the lead up to the game, but I still think we have a better team than ucd, and travelling up this evening hoping we can play to our potential and claim the win.

apparently bircham has said he is going to attend the game which may lead to more drama, who knows what will happen next at this stage.

PTH2009

Come On The Blues

Birchim up in the middle of the crowd, great to see

PTH2009

Disaster, Kerrigan and Whelan are killing us

If UCD get another one its game over, our only hope is a goal from a dead ball

JourneyMan8

gonna be some overhaul of that squad, assume the likes of Nolan Murphy and other experienced players were on a decent chunk. Forrest got his wish, his sons will have a better chance at playing in the first division lol

PTH2009

**** disaster, UCD fully deserved the win

Big rebuild ahead and lot of other issues particularly with gate money as not many will want to go see the likes of Wexford and Athlone Town.

With Bray and Cabinteely joining up will another club be promoted.

Squidvicious

Very disappointed. Must be the first club to go down with over 40 points. We weren't even beaten by a real football club. Let's hope we get decent crowds next year. As a manager of Waterford used to say in the programme every week many years ago(can't rememberhis name) - Keep the Faith!

BuildTheWall

A lot of the blame on what happened tonight needs to be firmly planted at the owners door.

hardybuck

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118229662#Comment_118229662

They've only won two of their last ten games. I don't think you can put that on the owner.

Deisegodeo

Absolutely gutted we are relegated. Not the biggest surprise after the week we had, has been a roller coaster few years capped by a crazy week for the club. Huge blues crowd at Richmond park last night, hoepfully the crowd stays behind the club and we get a good squad for next season but seems likely this team will be broken up bar a few.

hardybuck

I suppose all the English lads will clear off again and the team will be built around the local guys hopefully.

If there's any silver lining to this it might offer an opportunity for some promising young players to be blooded. Perhaps there's some U19s that'll get an opportunity that mightn't otherwise be available.

Other than that it's pretty bad news. Teams like Galway have big money behind them and are full time. Cork aren't always going to be a shambles either.

skaface

Its a hard one to take getting relegated.. Especially watching a shitshow like that last night.. It was to be expected really, with the circus voing on around the club this week.. 900 + supporters travelled last nite and deserved more.. Forrest needs to pump money into the team for next year, get a proper structure in place and get rid of the divisions within the club and get straight bsck up to the Premier division next year or we could be down in the graveyard for a long time unfortunately.. #BLUES 💙⚽

Dunmoreroader

Absolutely gutted about last night. We cheered and chanted ourselves hoarse but the game the Blues were trying to play last night was cack. Not the way they've played all season.

Forest has done a lot for this club but not waiting until after the playoff to sack Bircham(if he had to) was utter utter folly.

Jerry Atrick

Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face...absolutely desperate game plan last night. Totally different to how we played all year. UCD well deserved winners on the night.

BuildTheWall

They played hoofball rather than football.

PTH2009

Mixed feelings about that cup final result

After the Bohs fans carry on in the semi final I'm happy they lost and in turn get no euro football next year but then again St Pats went squealing to UEFA in term losing us having Euro football a few seasons ago

Christ who would of thought we'd be in such a state and in the 1st Division next season

BuildTheWall

UCD were fantastic, especially Colm Whelan but I get the sense that without the fiasco last week we could easily have avoided relegation. 900 at the match, doubt I’ll see many of them down in Cobh or Wexford next season.

Deisegodeo

Doesn't it just feel typical Waterford that we set a record points total, 42, for a team to be relegated with, no team has been relegated with such a points haul previously. And the 2 ucd goalscorers Friday night are former Blues academy players. Hard to take ...

hardybuck

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118238355#Comment_118238355

You reap what you sow.

I've been like a broken record going on about losing academy players, but I'm not sure if young players could see a future for themselves at the club under the last owner. UCD have demonstrated that a team of talented young players can prosper in Div 1, and maybe that should be a signal for Waterford to do likewise, and in fairness I think you can see a bit of that happening already.

I'm not sure what the standard of the U19 team is at the moment, but if they can keep guys experienced guys like Eddie Nolan and Brian Murphy involved, they might have an opportunity to build a new team that could stick together for a few seasons.

It's also a long time since Waterford had a decent goalscorer. 7 of the 10 teams in the league had at least one player who scored 10 goals or more, 2 of the 3 who didn't got relegated.

Crusty Blaa

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118238501#Comment_118238501

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118238501#Comment_118238501

Regarding a goalscorer, I'm not sure if he'd be interested but they should go out and try get Dean Walsh back on the books. I know it's not the same level but he's been scoring goals for fun with Villa. He never looked out of place in the few games he played for Waterford in the Premier Division a few years back and got on the scoresheet a few times. Think he'd do a right job in the 1st Division

Dunmoreroader

Just watched some of this Irish Footy Vlogs review of the Blues/UCD match and the St Pats lad referencing rumours about Bircham to come out making the lads supporting him look bad, about 4min 40 sec. in; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJ3ftB6pZsM

Anyone know anything that's prepared to share it on here?

south

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118240168#Comment_118240168

I think Dean had an offer to come back at the start of the season but turned it down to play with villa.