The Rams are back in St Colman’s Park this Friday night as Munster rivals Waterford make the trip west for the latest round of First Division action.
For Ramblers it’s a chance to get back on track after 1-0 defeats to Bray and Galway. Meanwhile third place Waterford travel on the back of a 1-1 draw at home to Longford Town. A stoppage-time equaliser from Louis Britton earned the Blues a point, leaving Ian Morris’ side five points behind Galway in second.
Tonight’s Munster Derby sees the first of four rounds of fixtures come to an end. These two sides haven’t met in the First Division since October 2017, when Cobh won 2-1 at St Colman’s Park thanks to Ian Mylod and David Hurley goals. Waterford incidentally won the league that year and went on to remain in the top tier until suffering relegation in 2021.
In terms of team news, Luke Desmond remains suspended for the game while former Waterford goalkeeper Sean Barron remains a doubt. A number of Rams will come up against their former side including captain John Kavanagh, Jack Larkin and Darryl Walsh.
Manager Darren Murphy spoked to the media earlier this week ahead of the tie,
“We’re playing well, the performances are there. We’re defending well and creating chances. We’ll keep working to turn those performances into wins and I’ve no doubt we will. Goalscoring isn’t an issue in training but in games they aren’t hitting the back of the net. We will get chances and it’s about putting them away.
Waterford are a good side, they’re strong, fit, athletic. We’ll expect them to give us a test coming down to Cobh. For us, you need to be winning your home games and points have gone astray at home. That’s gone now and we need to push on starting on Friday night. There’s lots of games coming up and that’s come at the right time for us.”
Recent arrival Harlain Mbayo also gave his thoughts,
“We’ve been in every game and performance-wise we’ve played well. When we defend well we give ourselves every chance. The crowds have been very good at home and that’s an extra incentive to play well and get a result. We all know that we need to start winning games. Whatever result we get on Friday we need to kick on now.”
Kick-off on Friday night in St Colman’s Park is at 19:45.
