Waterford FC manager Alan Reynolds is looking forward to a break following a successful season that saw huge personal highs and lows.
The campaign finished with the newly-promoted Blues in fourth place and set to play in Europe next term.
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That’s one of the highs, but the low came in May when Reynolds was the victim of an unprovoked night-time attack in Tramore which left him injuries to his body and face as well as a broken leg.
"It be fair, it was really difficult after it," he said, speaking to the RTÉ Soccer Republic Extra Podcast.
"Whether I’ve made a full recovery from it or not, I don’t know – I just need the season over so I can recharge the batteries.
"Obviously, I broke my leg and I was keen to get back on the pitch so I haven’t let that settle. Mentally, I’m tired from it all and I could just do with getting away, letting it all settle down and recharging the batteries.
"If I can sign a few players before I can do that, that’d be the first thing!" he laughed, aware that the sooner Waterford can conclude their off-season business, the better.
Despite the attack, Reynolds and his team enjoyed a great season and their fourth place was only confirmed with defeat by Shamrock Rovers on the penultimate day of the season – had they won that game they could have pipped the Hoops to third in Friday's final round of fixtures.
He said: "We’re thrilled; it’s some achievement for the club. We only came up from the first division last year, the group of players have been outstanding and worked really hard and I suppose what got us to fourth is our start to the season
"Some of that goes back to Pat Fenlon who was there for pre-season and it was really tough. The player recruitment was really good and we got some good players with a good attitude.
"We were very strong in the first half of the season and we fell off a bit, but I would have taken fourth before the start of the season.
"Before the start the ambition was to stay in the division, then we started well and people were asking could we stay close to Cork and Dundalk, which was never going to happen in my eyes."
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