Déise’s goal return a concern for Greene

Waterford’s goal scoring return of three goals in eight competitive games worries former All Star corner forward Jim Greene approaching tomorrow’s qualifier with Laois.

Pauric Mahony, Darragh Fives and Austin Gleeson are the only Déise players to raise green flags in 2014.

“We are not scoring goals. We got two in the league and we got one in the championship,” he said.

“While it was a very good one, it was still only one. We need to score more goals and we need to be more potent up front. Goals are the secret really and you saw that last Sunday with Galway. If you get a few goals in a match, anything is possible. We are lacking that at the minute.

“We have potential goal scorers in our squad at the minute but we are just not finding it yet. Maybe that will change on Saturday.!”

Ending a bad run of four defeats and a draw is important for the future development of Derek McGrath’s side.

“We have two or three elder lemons, but in the main we are a very young bunch. We need to be patient.

“In the meantime, you are in a competitive world where you need to be getting results too. A win is vital for this team, for its growth and for its maturity. We need to take something out of this year.”

He expects Laois to provide stern resistance. Seamus Plunkett’s men ran Galway to two points (1-22 to 0-23) in the Leinster quarter-final and Greene has studied their style of play.

“They played seven defenders against Galway the last day and they will probably do something similar this time. They had six points on Galway with very little time left and they were caught in the end. Laois are establishing themselves and are probably more advanced within their panel than we are at the minute.

“On Saturday night, it’s about ourselves. We have to play well, we have to perform to our top ability and if we can do that and have a very good performance as a unit we will win.”