Waterworth delighted as real Linfield deliver
STRIKER Andy Waterworth felt the ‘real’ Linfield turned up for the final 30 minutes, in their win over Institute, on Saturday.
The front man’s second-half brace ensured the Blues bounced back from their loss to Coleraine, with a win at the Ryan McBride Brandywell Stadium.
“To be honest last week’s game against Coleraine was very much in our minds in terms of that we were shocking all over the park, and there was a real bad taste at training all week,” he insisted.
“Firstly we wanted to go out there and get rid of last week’s performance and when you go a goal behind and Institute start popping the ball about you are thinking to yourself ‘this could be another long Saturday’.
“At times you are looking around and thinking how can we get ourselves back into it, but thankfully the boys showed a lot of character and once we scored the second goal we started to get a bit of confidence.
“I think then we had momentum and were on the front foot and it took us to get that bit of luck for the momentum to go our way, but then I think in the last 25 minutes you saw the real Linfield. To be honest it was good and it was very much about the result today. But we got the performance in the final 30 minutes, which meant we deservedly won.”
The 32-year-old believes his partnership with Michael O’Connor is starting to gel. “It’s nice to play with a strike partner and it’s not very often I play with a strike partner at Linfield,” he added.
“I thought Michael was terrific today, he’s very much the opposite of me, he likes to come short and he wants to be in the thick of things, where as I like to play on the shoulder and play in space and want to get on the half turn and drive, where as he wants to come short and use his body, but I think we are complementing each other.
“It’s like any partnership it’s going to take time. The last time we played together I felt we were very good. Michael missed last week’s game through suspension and I very much missed him, because he is a foil as he likes to go into areas and bring defenders into areas, which leaves me one versus one and one versus two at times, which helps me.
“You see him and Joel (Cooper) linking up for my second, that’s what every striker wants, he wants to play on the shoulder of the last defender and wants to be put in and even Michael’s weight of pass was brilliant for the goal.” INSTITUTE: Gallagher, McLaughlin, Bonner, Curry, Doherty, Curry (Moorehead 69), McCrudden, Jarvis, Brown (Dunne 69), Wilson, McCready (Henderson 77). LINFIELD: Carroll, Robinson, Callacher, Waterworth, Michael O’Connor, Jordan Stewart (Matthew Clarke 85), Millar (Cooper 76), Fallon (Garrett 83), Mulgrew, Quinn, Casement.
Referee: Andrew Davey.
Man of match: Jamie Mulgrew.
Match rating: 7/10.