📏 Form Guide

Waterford

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Waterford will be hoping to bounce back here after the 4-1 Premier Division losing effort in their last game against St. Patrick's Athletic.

In that game, Waterford had 31% possession and 11 shots at goal with 4 of them on target. The only player to score for Waterford was John Mahon (5'). St Patrick's Athletic had 23 shots on goal with 10 on target. Chris Forrester (45'), Zachary Elbouzedi (57', 60') and Ryan Edmondson (77') scored for St. Patrick's Athletic.

It has been seldom in recent games that Waterford have shown defensive steel. In fact, Waterford have seen their defence breached in 6 of their previous 6 matches, shipping 12 goals in the process.

Pre-game facts show that Waterford:

• are winless against Derry City in their last 3 league games.
• have not been beaten in their last 3 league matches at home.
• haven’t won at home in the past 9 matches in the league. It's been disappointing.

Derry City

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Since being beaten in their last game against Drogheda United in Premier Division competition, Derry City and their fans will hope to get a better result this time.

In that game, Derry City managed 69% possession and 13 attempts on goal with 4 of them on target. On the other side, Drogheda United had 6 shots on goal with 2 on target. Ryan Brennan (55') was the scorer for Drogheda United.

The stats don’t lie, and Derry City have been scored against in 5 of their last 6 games, conceding 6 goals in total. In defence, Derry City have seen their frailties exposed. Still, we will just have to wait and see if that pattern might be replicated here in this game or not.

Going into this contest, Derry City haven’t won away from home in the past 2 league games.

↔️ Head to head

Looking at their prior head-to-head meetings stretching back to 23/08/2024 shows us that Waterford have won 2 of them & Derry City 4, with the tally of drawn games standing at 0.

Those games weren’t short on goals, either, with 25 in all at an average of 4.17 goals per meeting.

The last league match featuring the two was Premier Division match day 4 on 27/02/2026 when it ended Derry City 4-2 Waterford.

In that game, Derry City managed 66% possession and 21 shots on goal with 13 of them on target. The goals were scored by Michael Duffy (58', 75', 94') and Dipo Akinyemi (90').

For their opponents, Waterford had 8 shots at goal with 5 of them on target. Jørgen Voilås (19') and Tom Lonergan (51') scored.

The referee was Paul Norton.

📋 Team News: Waterford

Availability isn’t a big problem, with just a single fitness concern for the Waterford gaffer Brian Murphy to be concerned about thanks to an otherwise robust set of players. Finlay Armstrong (unknown injury) won’t play. Sam Glenfield will not be able to play in this game through being suspended.

It’s our opinion that The Blues will probably use a 5-3-2 formation for this one and select Stephen McMullan, Hayden Cann, Kevin Long, John Mahon, Jordan Houston, Benny Couto, Luke Heeney, Will Johnson, Conan Noonan, Tom Lonergan and Padraig Amond.

📰 Team News: Derry City

We believe The Candystripes seem most likely to play in a 4-3-3 lineup, choosing Eddie Beach, Barry Cotter, Jamie Stott, Conor Barr, Brandon Fleming, Adam O'Reilly, Michael Duffy, James Clarke, Kevin Santos, Dipo Akinyemi and James Olayinka.

💡 Prediction

We’re thinking that Waterford have it within them to find the net against this Derry City outfit, however a single goal is unlikely to be enough.

Our selection here is for a narrow 1-2 win for Derry City at the end of the 90 minutes. Let’s wait and see how it plays out.

Andre Moura, 18:11 15/05/2026