Blues - Waterford United FC Programme v Finn Harps Friday 25th April 2014 | Page 16
Spotlight With Shane Murray
the Blues midfielder talked to Brendan White
back out for our cool down there were still there, a
great group of them with the drum. They’re a good
group of fans to be fair to them, they followed us
down to Cobh last time which was great and they
kept making noise, so fair play to them.”
As for the result’s significance to the season going
forward, Murray is equal parts pragmatic and
optimistic. “It’s huge to just get that win off our
backs now, it was a bit of a weird situation that
we were in having drawn five of our six matches. I
think that’s a massive three points for us, and that’ll
hopefully start our season for us now and kick on from
here hopefully.”
Name: Shane Murray
Position: Midfielder
Height: 6ft
Born: 27th February 1992, Wicklow
Resides: Wicklow
Previous Sides: Sheffield United, Arklow Town,
Bohemians
After a hard-fought match that saw Waterford
United take an overdue first win of the season,
Brendan White caught up with Blues midfielder Shane
Murray, to get his thoughts on the game just gone, the
season so far, and the prospects for the rest of the
year. He first asked the Wicklow native how the first
three point haul of the campaign had gone down in
the dressing room.
“We’re delighted to get the win and get the three
points, that’s all Vinny the captain has been saying,
all we needed was to get that three points no matter
how we get it. We can kick on from here now, that’ll
settle us all down, it was a bit cagey at the end but
the main thing is we got through it and we got the
three points.”
“The early goal was important”, the lively
midfielder continued, “it settled us down. It was a great
header by Paddy [Barrett] and then it was all about
concentration after that. They never really
threatened us, but we didn’t want to over commit and then
get caught.”
After catching the eye in pre-season, including a spell
as the club’s latest viral sensation with his goal direct
from a corner kick against Limerick reaching almost
150,000 youtube views and being picked up by the
likes of ESPN, the 22-year-old missed much of the
opening series of games through illness. “It’s been
very frustrating personally being out sick. Coming
back, I was half back for a bit, but Tommy and Alan
told me stay away until I get myself back and fit. I’ve
trained fully the last two weeks and I’m starting to
feel back to myself now thankfully.”
Looking forward to tonight’s game, and beyond,
Murray and his colleagues are in no doubt as
to what is required of the team to get them back
challenging at the right end of the table. “Same thing
again against Harps next week, we’ll be looking to
get straight in to get the three points. It’s going to be
a tough game, they’re doing well, but I think we need
to make the RSC a fortress here this season, this is
where we need to be picking up the majority of our
points and we’ll all be ready for the game. Home
form is important but if we can start picking up more
points away from home too that’ll really help us.”
And as the players and staff dispersed from under
the old stand after a satisfactory evening’s work, a
last word from the young midfielder struck an upbeat
note. “Morale is still good here and we still have the
belief that we can push on. It wasn’t our best game
against Rovers, but that’ll settle everyone, and we’ll
look to kick on from here.”
“And the fans were great too, even when we went
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