Easter Monday’s match in the RSC kicks off at 5pm. Coverage is on LOITV.

A 3-1 Dublin derby win over Bohemians on Friday in front of a 10,094 attendance and a live RTE broadcast, despite an ordinary first half, Rovers really got into their stride second half with the two early goals and all three goals were ruthlessly finished.

“We spoke about how we felt we should’ve been a lot better in the first half. The players felt that and knew that at half time. These players are really clever with high football IQs, they know when they’ve been good or slightly off it. So, they knew at half time we hadn’t played to our levels. We had a little chat, and they were brilliant in the second half, really went up the levels, we completely dominated the second half.”

Is conceding the goal with the last kick of the game a real annoyance or in the overall scheme of things, it’s three points and shelve the goal we conceded and move on?

“We’re really annoyed. You could feel it afterwards in the dressing room, all the defenders, Leon, the group in general, it really annoyed us to concede that. It was really sloppy from our point of view; Leon switches off in the last few seconds and it cost us a goal. Leon is young and is learning, but it’s every second in every minute in the game you need to focus and concentrate. Thankfully, we’ve done it in a game when we’re 3-0 up. We need to learn from that, Leon needs to learn from that, and we’ll move on, but we’re never happy to concede like that.”

To Waterford away on Easter Monday, they’re finding goals hard to come by recently but are the only team to take points off Shelbourne so far and are only a point behind us, so a tough test awaits us and you’ll have done your homework on Waterford.

“Yes, it’s a tough game. When you watch all of their games, other than away to Derry, they’ve been in with a real shout of winning them. You look at their forward line, Padraig Amond, who we know all about, he’s scored goals all his career and is really dangerous. Waterford have real pace around that, so you must respect them, respect it will be a big crowd and we know Keith ((Long) will have them very well set up. So, it’ll be difficult game.”

We mentioned in the previous “Team News” how the international break enabled a few players to get over knocks, but Rory Gaffney and Jack Byrne weren’t involved against Bohemians, so can we give a time on their likely return?

“Rory will be close for Waterford. He picked up a knock on his knee against Sligo, he thought he could run it off against Galway. After the Galway game he wasn’t happy with it, we got it checked so he just needed a bit of rest with it. Jack is probably another week away, we’re just being really cautious with Jack. He’s been out for a long time and when you’re out that long, the body is open to picking up little niggles elsewhere. So, we’re just being cautious about bringing Jack back in. You have to remember we’re only six games into the season, our plan this season is to go deep in all competitions, so we’d rather keep him for the long haul. Hopefully, all going well, Jack might be available for St Pat’s away next Friday.”