Waterford United 0-0 Shelbourne

Woejous in Waterford

This was definitely one of those games that was to be endured rather than enjoyed. Given their table–topping status, the Real Red’s fans travelled in expectation of seeing their team make an audacious bid for all three points from the league’s bottom club. Audacious by Dermot Keely’s standards, means playing a centre-half in midfield, while leaving your most creative player on the bench, and playing a tight close game for the first half, building into a steady unexciting but slightly more expansive orgy of ordinariness in the second half. On Friday night in the Waterford RSC, it wasn’t even that good. Still, Shels came away clear leaders by a single point and will stay that way until Sunday afternoon, so it can’t be all bad – just excruciating to watch.

Though apparently having a full squad to pick from (excepting James Keddy ), Deco Geoghegan and Ritchie Baker were both missing from the Shels starting line-out. Deco arrived late, delayed in traffic, while Ritchie was surely been rested as he was still ‘coming down’ from the exhilaration of his trial in that hotbed of football at Bristol City.

In this part of the report, Red Bull normally gets into the nuts & bolts of the match, describing a few of the more memorable passages of play and maybe even a blow by blow account of a goal. Not so, this time – ‘cos there weren’t any. Nothing of note happened. O.K., Waterford had a fair bit of the play especially in the first half, but they never really threatened. Steve Williams was relatively busy, but it was all mundane stuff, mainly tidying up. The squally wind didn’t help – in fact it exacerbated matters, as Shels hoofed every ball that came their way. The arrival of van der Velden slightly improved prospects with his ability and willingness (against orders ?) to put his foot on the ball, look around and place a pass. However his free kicks and a couple of his normally dangerous long-range shots failed to deliver.

Geoghegan’s injury, when he landed awkwardly after rising for an unchallenged header is worrying and when Powell also had to go off, Shels were down to nine men at one stage as Heary was off receiving treatment. Following recent criticism, Red Bull had resolved to lay off a certain No. 9, but after last night’s inept display by the entire team, Red Bull wonders whether ‘stockinitis’ is contagious ?

Team : Williams; Heary, McCarthy, Scully, T Byrne; D Baker, Fenlon , Campbell (van der Velden 45 mins) Ogden ( R Baker 57 mins); S Geoghegan (Powell 64 mins), Haylock.

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