O'Brien rues play-off defeat

Waterford United once more endured the pain of play-off defeat in their continuing quest to return to Irish football’s promised land. The Blues were beaten 2-0 by Dundalk in front of a packed RSC, a result which condemns the Suirsiders to at least another season in the First Division wilderness.

After the game, Waterford manager Paul O’Brien spoke to Extratime.ie about falling at the final hurdle, and how to get back on the horse. 

The Blues had started brightly in both halves but were caught on the counter-attack by the visitors, who took advantage of their hosts’ commitment to attack. O’Brien lamented the timing of the first goal’s concession, as well as a couple of questionable refereeing decisions. 

“Dundalk scored in the 45^th minute, just before half time, and against the run of play, I thought,” said O’Brien.

“It kind of had them going in with their backs up. Then in the second half they got a second goal but we had a penalty shout, I thought and, even besides that, the offside goal. My family was here and one of them said it wasn’t offside but I honestly don’t know. But look, we have to take what’s given to us.”
 

Both decisions in question featured Waterford starlet Sean Maguire. For the first, the young forward crumpled in the area after what seemed like a trip from Dundalk’s Liam Burns. Referee Padraigh Sutton felt however that Maguire had dived and booked him for simulation, to the dismay of the home crowd and the Waterford manager, who feels the 18-year-old has been the victim of some unfair officiating throughout the season. 
 

“You kind of expect those decisions but I think all year Seanie Maguire’s been penalised. You know, I’ve been at games where he’s been, I don’t know, victimised is probably the word. They seem to be punishing him more for diving and this and that. I’ve seen Seanie all through the season be kicked all over the place and Seanie made a statement there, where he felt he wasn’t protected this year.”
 

O’Brien also questioned the play-off system itself, which required his team to beat third-placed Longford Town over two legs to earn the right to meet Dundalk. 
 

“When you look at it, you can finish second and absolutely get nothing for it – only the expense of travelling around and getting results,” said O’Brien. “It’s crazy, absolutely crazy. I just find it hard to understand the whole situation.”
 

The Blues’ boss was able to take some heart from his team’s overall performance throughout a long season, if not from its ultimate conclusion. Taking over from former manager Stephen Henderson, O’Brien endured some rocky patches early in his reign before finally showing promotion form this season. Waterford beat eventual champions Limerick four times during this campaign and showed enough to suggest they should be favourites to go up in 2013. 

“You have to take the positives,” declared O’Brien.

“At the start, and it was always going to happen, you get a new team with different players who don’t know each other and they’re going to have to gel. I think, to be fair, they worked very, very hard and they got their just rewards midway through the season.

"I made a statement amongst the press here that the league wasn’t won in the first series of games and I really felt that. And I felt that the team that I put out on the pitch too – there were a lot of players that could score, and we weren’t only depending on one or two players. So when you look at [the season] overall, I was pleased.
 

“There’s a nucleus there of young players and senior players and, while you’d always look to improve your squad, I think the future’s bright. But it’s a pity we couldn’t shine in the Premier Division.” 
 

A large section of the home support remained in the ground to applaud their beaten team off the pitch and chant the names of players and manager alike. For O’Brien, it was an appreciated gesture, but one which only seems to reinforce his disappointment at not being able to give those fans their first taste of Premier Division football in more than five years. 
 

“I suppose you take consolation from that. But at the end of the day, my job here is to bring [the team] up to the Premier and I’m disgusted that I failed at the last hurdle. Being so close - we were never chasing it, and that was the amazing thing about it in the play-offs. We gave a great account of ourselves, and at the end of the day…it just wasn’t to be.”