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 16 twitter.com/waterfordunited