"I feel there are more goals to come and I just want to score in every game I get to play for Waterford." When a striker says that after already netting 14 league goals, the rest of the Premier Division should be paying attention.
Tommy Lonergan has won the SSE Airtricity/Soccer Writers Ireland Player of the Month award for July, and it wasn't close. The Waterford striker polled 50 points — Shane Farrell of Drogheda United was second on 17, with Sligo Rovers' Cian Kavanagh one point further back. A landslide, not a contest.
Three goals clear and pulling away
Two goals, two assists in July. That's the return that sealed the award, and it's the kind of contribution that shifts a Golden Boot race. Lonergan now leads that competition by three, with the season still to run — and he's showing no signs of a slowdown.
He scored again in the Blues' 3-1 home win over Bohemians, the result that lifted Waterford out of the bottom two of the Premier Division for the first time all season. That context matters. This isn't a striker padding stats on a comfortable team — he's been dragging a club out of a relegation battle, game by game.
That's the Lonergan premium that anyone pricing Waterford's survival odds needs to factor in. Remove him from this side and you're looking at a very different points trajectory.
Coughlan's arrival changed everything
The 22-year-old Dunboyne native — who came through Cherry Orchard and St Patrick's Athletic before spells at UCD and Fleetwood Town on loan — credits manager Graham Coughlan for unlocking his best form. "Since Graham came in, I have been starting games and playing every week and I have been impacting games. It's not just the goals. I feel my all round play is much better," he said.
That rings true watching him. Lonergan won two FAI Cup medals with St Pat's (2021 and 2023) and earned six Ireland U21 caps, so the pedigree was always there. What Coughlan has given him is continuity and trust — and a striker with 14 goals in a season knows exactly what that's worth.
Derry City certainly noticed. Waterford rejected a record transfer bid from the Candystripes, and given what Lonergan is producing, you can see why they didn't budge. Up next: Club Orange FAI Cup action against Athlone Town this weekend.
