The Blues team that defeated Athlone Town at Lissywollen on Friday night. Next up are Bray at home on Saturday. Photo: Paul Elliott.

SSE AIRTRICITY FIRST DIVISION
SATURDAY, MARCH 18
WATERFORD FC V BRAY WANDERERS
KICK-OFF: 3PM

After returning to winning ways with a narrow 1-0 win over Athlone Town in a far from convincing second-half performance at the Midlands venue on Friday night, Waterford FC will be hoping to pick up their first home win when they take on Bray Wanderers at the RSC on this Saturday afternoon with a 3pm kick-off.
Although the Blues normally play on a Friday night, the St. Patrick’s Day festivities and the closing of the RSC on the Bank Holiday will now see the game take place on Saturday afternoon where the home fans will be hoping to have something to celebrate.
It has to be said that the last two displays at the RSC haven’t been great to say the very least so supporters will be looking for more when the men from the Carlisle Grounds arrive into town where they are ahead of the Blues in the table.
In their four games to date in the league, the Seagulls have two wins and two draws to their name and stand a point ahead of Danny Searle’s side with their latest point coming in last Friday’s scoreless draw against Longford Town at home.
Blues Head Coach Danny Searle wasn’t agreeing that the two performances at home to both Longford and Galway were poor when it was put to him after the game in Athlone Town, but instead he was happy to pick the positives on reflection.
Speaking ahead of Saturday’s game, Searle said: “I don’t agree on poor. The results were poor, but the level of performance haven’t been. The Longford game, we dominated for large spells, but just failed in the final third, and the game against Galway, we were better in every element except the column that matters.
“I know that people will say that’s all we care about, but we’ve got stuff to build on. We’ve put down a bit of a foundation, and we’ve got a points total that we want to hit per quarter and we’re on target to do that. We know that Bray won’t be an easy challenge, but like I said, no game in this league will be this season.
“I think that we’ve got variety in our attacking play this season and I’m sure we’ll see more of that in the games to come. We gave Thomas Oluwa the chance, but maybe he didn’t get the service that could really exploit what he has got. We’ve got a squad this season, and it’s nice to have options so it’s not the same old same old coming off and on the pitch all the time.”