‘Waterford will be coming here all guns blazing’
SHAMROCK Rovers captain Ronan Finn insists his side will be facing a Waterford outfit that will not be holding back in their bid to overtake them into third place in the Premier Division table when then come to Tallaght Stadium on Friday night.
Anything less than three points for the visitors will effectively see them out of the running for a top-three finish given that just one other match remains and Rovers already hold a three point lead as well as a huge advantage in goal-difference.
While Finn wants to see the Hoops end this particular battle tomorrow night, he has warned they will be made work for it by a Waterford side with whom they have had several close encounters this season.
“We know that a win on Friday will guarantee us third place,” he told The Echo. “It’s not where we want to be, we want to be up there challenging, but at this stage of the season it would be good to finish third.
“We’ve been chasing that for a while now. When we played them [Waterford] in the summer there was a chance that they could have gone ten points ahead of us, but we flipped that by beating them.
“Now if we get three points we’ll solidify that [third place] so it’s great motivation for us.
“Waterford will be coming here all guns blazing. For them it’s a free crack at it. They’ve got to attack and we don’t know any other way than to play for the three points so it’s going to be a real open game.
“And we fancy ourselves in an open game in Tallaght. It’s going to be a great occasion and we back ourselves. We’re in good form at the moment,” he stressed.
Nothing more than a goal has separated the two teams in all of their league encounters this season and Finn is expecting another thrilling match tomorrow night.
“When we played them [Waterford] early on in the season, it was a tight game, but then we had Ally Gilchrist sent off and we lost Trevor Clarke to injury and he was a big loss to us for the season.
“We played them in Dublin and drew and then we beat them away so it should be another very competitive game.
“They play a strange diamond formation and have that quality in midfield, and I think that’s where the battle will be,” he predicted.
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