VENUE
Tallaght Stadium, Friday 10 November, 7.45pm.
TV
Live coverage on Virgin Media 3 from 7.30pm.
ONLINE
Live blog on RTÉ.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app from 7.30pm.
RADIO
Live coverage on RTÉ 2FM.
WEATHER
A cool but mild November evening in store in Tallaght. Looking like a chilly 5*C or so but with very little wind. Wooly hat in club colours definitely required. No rain forecast… so bring a brolly.
WHAT GOES UP…
… Must come down. It's the major intrigue of the League Of Ireland Promotion/Relegation playoff. Yes, Cork City are, at least until about 9pm Friday night, a top-flight club and therefore, in theory, should be able to manage First Division Waterford.
But the Leesiders are also a side low on form and even lower on confidence. Waterford, on the other hand, are loving life having finished 10 points clear of Cobh in the second tier, albeit the full 25 points behind runaway league winners Galway United. Does the format favour the team with their tails up?
HOW DID WE GET HERE?
It’s been a struggle all season for Cork. Colin Healy stepped down as manager at the start of May with the club second from bottom after 13 Premier Division games. Healy had been in the hotseat for three seasons. He has since gone on to form part of the temporary management crew with the Republic of Ireland women’s team being led by Eileen Gleeson in the post-Vera Pauw era.
Liam Buckley was drafted in as sporting director in a surprise move, initially to support Healy, before taking over the management role a few weeks later. Buckley stepped aside at the end of September with his assistant Richie Holland taking over. If the identity of the man in charge has chopped and changed, the results have remained consistent – they have not been good.
Their last league win came at the UCD Bowl on 22 October when they defeated the already relegated Students 2-0. Cork have not won a league game – or scored a league goal – since.
A 1-0 defeat at home to Derry was followed by a creditable 0-0 draw at Turner’s Cross with eventual champions Shamrock Rovers before their league season ended with a 4-0 walloping at the hands of Bohemians in Dalymount Park. Holland was unequivocal when speaking to the RTÉ cameras back on 8 October: "We can't go down," the manager stressed.
"This is one of the biggest clubs in the country. We can't go down."
— RTÉ Soccer (@RTEsoccer) October 8, 2023
Cork manager Richie Holland is in no doubt how important Premier Division survival is for the Leesiders.#RTEsoccer #FAICup pic.twitter.com/YLpz7ni2Br
It’s been a more pleasant calendar year for Waterford – although the season started in an eerily similar manner to Cork’s. After a slow start, they parted company with manager Danny Searle after just five games and quickly replaced him with former Bohs boss Keith Long and the rest, as they say, is geography.
Former Ireland striker Jonathan Walters had been appointed Technical Director at the end of 2022 - a role he shared with 'sister club' Fleetwood Town. The ex-Stoke striker was gone by the following May. The Fleetwood connection came via new owner Andrew Pilley, who purchased Waterford in August last year. Also the owner of English League 1 side, Fleetwood Town, Pilley is now in jail.
Since losing 3-1 in Galway in early October, the men from the sunny southeast are unbeaten. They drew 1-1 back out in the west the following week, away to Kerry. After that they were at home for a 2-0 win over Treaty United in their final regular season fixture.
From there, despite being head and shoulders above the also-rans behind champions Galway, Waterford had to negotiate the tricky business of the promotion play-offs. A 4-2 aggregate win over Athlone set them up for a tussle with Cobh Ramblers – who had beaten Wexford 2-1 over two legs.
Waterford looked bound for the play-off final when Ronan Coughlan’s goal had them 1-0 ahead with just three minutes left. But Matthew McKevitt popped up with a Ramblers equaliser and we needed extra innings to separate the pair. Giles Phillips’ 100th-minute winner eventually set Waterford up for a Tallaght date with the Cork men this Friday evening.
DIDN’T THESE TWO HAVE A CRACK AT EACH OTHER ALREADY?
They certainly did. Cork hammered Waterford 3-0 in an FAI Cup quarter-final back on 21 August at the Cross. Cork got off to a flyer that day, in fairness. Ruari Keating found the net in the first minute and it was all gravy from there for City.
Joshua Honahan doubled their lead about a quarter of an hour later and Cian Bargary wrapped it up two minutes from time. Waterford’s Roland Idowu was sent off for a second yellow card right on the 90. Not a good dress rehearsal for Waterford, it must be said. But c’mere, that was August. Tis a different world now…
THAT KEATING BOY GETS A FEW
He does indeed. Knows his way to goal, the 28-year-old. Banged in a hat-trick in a 3-0 win at home to Sligo which, at the time, gave them a more than decent chance of catching Rovers and avoiding the dreaded relegation play-off.
Waterford have a prolific goal-getter of their own, however. Ronan Coughlan got that opener against Cobh in the promotion final. He’s credited with no fewer than 33 goals for Waterford this season and has taken that red-hot form into the play-offs.
Coughlan has clearly been below his level in the First Division and if anyone is going to make Cork’s creaky Premier Division defence work hard for their dinner, it’s the 27-year-old former Sligo and Pat’s striker. Coughlan was named Soccer Writers Ireland Player of the Month in April, a month where he found the net an incredible 11 times.
DON’T MENTION THE WAR…
We have to, I’m afraid… Waterford have been down this road before. Twice. In 2022, under Searle, they reached the FAI Cup semi-finals and the promotion/relegation play-off decider with UCD. The Students thought them a lesson at Richmond Park when Tommy Lonergan scored the only goal of the game.
The result was an almost carbon copy of the previous year’s promotion/relegation final at the same venue. In 2021, UCD prevailed 2-1 over Waterford, with Dara Keane and Colm Whelan netting for the Belfield side after Anthony Wordsworth had given Waterford a positively poetic start with a fifth-minute strike.
It’s not UCD this time around, obviously. They have finally conceded their perilous Premier Division status and will be in the second tier next campaign. But which Munster side will they have for company in the First Division, Cork City or Waterford? It’s anyone’s guess…
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Watch the FAI Cup final, Bohemians v St Patrick's Athletic, on Sunday from 2pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on RTÉ.ie/Sport and the RTÉ News app and listen to live radio commentary on Sunday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1.
