Derry v Waterford Preview

Keith Long’s Blues, fourth in the very early league table, travel 250 miles north to play sixth-placed Derry City on a night when the visitors need to show the fight that eluded them in this fixture last year. Derry were the only team against whom Waterford didn’t take a single point in 2024 with four deeply disappointing defeats.

These clubs went seven seasons without meeting until Waterford’s return to the Premier Division in 2018 when Derry provided the opposition in the first match of the season. Gavan Holohan and Dean O’Halloran scored the goals in a famous 2-1 win for the Blues.

While the spoils have been shared at the RSC over the past seven years (three wins apiece and three draws), Derry have utterly dominated the fixture at the Brandywell. The Candystripes have won eight of the ten clashes including an extra-time victory in the 2019 EA Sports Cup. Waterford have won the other two – a 2-1 win in the summer of 2018, with Holohan on the scoresheet again as well as Dessie Hutchinson, and a repeat scoreline in 2021 with goals from Shane Griffin and Oscar Brennan providing the lone highlight of Mike Newell’s time in charge of the club.

Last season was a low ebb for the Blues when it came to games against tonight’s hosts. Four defeats from four without a single goal scored, Waterford really never laid a glove on City all season. There were two 3-0 defeats at the Brandywell which saw a Pat Hoban hat-trick and red card ending the first contest by the 53^rd minute and the second was even worse as Derry had a three-goal lead just half an hour into the match. At home, in the RSC, there was a drab 2-0 loss in April while the final fixture was decided by a single, shocking own goal by ‘keeper Louis Jones.

 

 

Both teams have a win and a loss to start this season, but Derry’s win was at home (1-0 versus Bohemians last week) while Waterford’s was away (the 3-2 opening night win in Sligo). Long’s men performed well on the road last season with an impressive six wins – three in Dublin, two in Louth and one in Sligo.

Ryan Burke misses tonight’s game so expect Darragh Leahy to switch to left back. With only six senior defenders in the squad, Long will hope that Grant Horton is fit to return or a change in formation may be required. Navajo Bakboord, Andy Boyle and Kacper Radkowski will make up the rest of the backline.

The good news is that James Olayinka has travelled to Foyleside having missed the first two games with an unfortunate eye injury that necessitated laser surgery. The 24-year old could be a key player for the Blues in 2025. Along with loanee Conan Noonan, the ex-Arsenal man is one of two signings brought into a midfield area that needed to be addressed, albeit Kyle White has returned from injury too. Long will expect big things from Olayinka who was featuring regularly in League One for Cheltenham Town a year ago and played thirty-eight games in that division between 2022 and 2024.

It's been all change at Derry with a new manager – Tiernan Lynch – and a host of new signings. Those newcomers bring a wealth of experience, but also mean that the Ulstermen’s average age will be one of the highest in League of Ireland memory. The latest was signing 32-year-old defender Kevin Holt straight out of Dundee United’s starting eleven.

There’ll always be a debate about experience and nous versus hunger and energy and Derry are firmly in the first camp. Other thirty-somethings Robbie Benson, Liam Boyce, Shane Ferguson and Carl Winchester have been added to contemporaries Hoban, Michael Duffy and captain Mark Connolly (all three of whom were voted into the PFAI Team of the Year in 2024). Other familiar faces include former Blue Adam O’Reilly, goalkeeper Brian Maher and Cameron Dummigan.

Tonight will be a tough task on a treacherous surface and the Blues can’t afford the temptation of looking towards Monday’s Munster derby yet. Pádraig Amond, Tommy Lonergan and Noonan will provide plenty of goalscoring threat, but only if the visitors can win more of the ball in midfield than in any of last year’s clashes. It will take an energetic and disciplined performance to spring a surprise. It’s time to finally give Derry a rattle again.