Tuesday Blue

Tuesday is Blues Day, so this week’s Tuesday Blue is the boss himself, Graham Coughlan. 
The new Blues manager won’t need plaudits like this to motivate him, but he deserves tremendous credit for what he has achieved in the first eight weeks of his tenure. When he was appointed on the 6th of May, Waterford were nine points adrift at the bottom of the table, winless all season and had only scored twelve goals in fourteen games (three of which came two days earlier under caretaker management). Since then, the Blues have been on something of a roll.

We can pretty much dismiss his first game in charge against St Pat’s two days after his appointment as he had very little chance to change anything. Waterford were a goal up approaching half time, but collapsed to a 4-1 defeat. In the seven games since, the Blues have won three times, drawn twice and lost twice. They have scored fifteen goals and conceded twelve. Most importantly, they have moved from a meagre six points to seventeen and are within striking distance of the teams immediately above on the table.

Friday night was an incredible win in so many ways. Two-nil down and playing poorly against the league’s form team, travelling and playing in draining heat, on a ground where Waterford lost 5-0 earlier in the season. The plastic pitch, the small away support, the same errors coming back, and without an away win in eleven months. It would have been very easy for heads to drop.

Instead, Coughlan gathered the troops at half time, made positive substitutions ten minutes into the half and changed to a four-four-two formation. At two-all, both sides might have been content to be cautious and hold what they had, but Graham replaced defender Jordan Houston with winger Trae Coyle and, while that didn’t quite work, it was still a sign of intent - sending the message to the team that the game was there to be won. And when Will Johnson fired that throw into the box, and John Mahon decided to hook a finish in that was more like Haaland than a half back, that win was secured.

Having taken just two points from a possible thirty away from home all season, the Blues were on the bus home with three more and those points could be so precious by the end of the season. The team have purpose now, there’s an identity, and the manager is making the most of what he has. Now that the transfer window is open, it’ll be interesting to see if he is backed to bring in some key additions that might ensure Waterford are playing in Tallaght, not Tralee, next year.