By William Dunne

Waterford football manager Tom McGlinchey says his team don't have 'any realistic chance' of overcoming Derry in Round 1A of the All-Ireland SFC this Saturday afternoon at Fraher Field.

Although they pushed Cork to a single point in the first round of the Munster SFC - a Cork team that subsequently qualified for the provincial Final by beating Tipperary last weekend - McGlinchey has played down his team's chances of springing a surprise against a Derry team that traditionally does well in the Qualifiers.

Morale boosting performances aside, the history of both county’s qualifier records has given the Waterford manager a pragmatic thought process as to whether his team can prevail at the Dungarvan venue on Saturday afternoon.

“Any sane person that would follow GAA and follow trends would say that Waterford have no chance”, he told GAA.ie.

“Waterford have only won one qualifier game in the last 16 years. I think Derry statistically would be in the top four if not top five of counties in the country that have done well in the qualifiers. 

“The fact that they have been relegated, okay it’s disappointing for them but I don’t think that it’s going to affect them in any way. 

“They have been relegated to Division Three but I mean, we wouldn’t see ourselves having any realistic chance here.

“All we want to do is go out and perform and hopefully a performance will bring a bit of belief back to the players and something to build on for the future.”

The manner in which Waterford troubled Cork may have come as a shock to many outsiders but McGlinchey had no qualms in his player’s abilities prior to the match.

Waterford were also massive underdogs heading into the Cork tie but the manager feels that no parallels can be drawn leading up to the Derry clash.

“It’s going to be a totally different game now against Derry," he said.

“The Cork game, we put up a good performance on the day but obviously it wasn’t enough and we didn’t get over the line.

“Hugely disappointed with that but proud with the lads played but still, moral victories are no good at this stage.

“I mean we never doubted their ability, we never doubted their fitness and their ability to fight in a battle.

“They were all of the things that we were aware of but the fact that they did it on a big day against Cork was pleasing but again the overriding fact was that we didn’t win the game.”