EVEN AFTER just two games, not many people would have predicted that Waterford would be sitting at the top of the Premier Division table.
Yet a creditable 1-1 draw with Shelbourne followed by an emphatic 4-1 win up in Drogheda means the team some pundits were tipping for relegation have already outlined why such talk could be wide of the mark.
Barry Baggley was one of several astute signings the club made in the off-season.
Nonetheless, the 22-year-old doesn’t feel like a new player, given that he is in his second stint at the club.
He also spent last season on loan with Keith Long’s side away from parent club Fleetwood Town, whose links with Waterford are well documented.
Baggley has made 12 appearances in League One, but it wasn’t until 2023 that he fully established himself in men’s football, featuring 33 times in the First Division as Waterford earned promotion to the top flight.
Already, he is noticing the difference in standard from last year.
“You can tell there’s a step up in quality and more so in the fitness levels and the speed of the game, intensity and stuff,” he tells The 42. “But it’s something that I’ll get used to going forward.”
While happy with the club’s impressive start, the midfielder is not getting too carried away with early results.
“I think the main goal is to stay in the division and perform the best we can every week. And we’ve got a decent squad.
“So I think we can get results against some of the big teams, especially at home.”
The decision to return for a second spell at Waterford was an “easy” one. He has found first-team football hard to come by at Fleetwood and had been informed by the English club that the situation was unlikely to change this season.
He is hopeful that producing a strong campaign in the Premier Division can convince the Fishermen to give him another chance. The Belfast native also believes he is not “a million miles away” from a Northern Ireland senior call-up having won several caps at underage level.
Long certainly thinks highly of him — Baggley has been made club captain, an honour rarely bestowed upon loan players.
“It’s probably something you’d expect later on down the line in your career,” he says. “But to get it now has given me a big boost of confidence. And I hopefully can repay it with the performances on the pitch.”
Baggley comes from a sporting background. His father, Barry Sr, is an amateur football manager who had stints on the books at Cliftonville and Carrick Rangers when he was a player.
The younger Baggley started in the academy of Irish Premiership sides, first Linfield and then Glentoran.
Aged 16, he moved across the water to play for Fleetwood, with a couple of other footballers he knew from growing up in Belfast also there, which helped stave off feelings of homesickness.
As a kid, he idolised Liverpool legend Steven Gerrard but physically Baggley is more in the mould of two other midfielders he always admired — Andrés Iniesta and David Silva.
His 12 assists last season also indicate a creative element to his game that is fundamental to how Waterford like to play.
“I always want to impact the game whether it be scoring a goal, setting up a goal or even just creating chances for the team,” he adds.
These attributes helped Baggley enjoy a dream start to his career.
On 9 March 2019, he was introduced off the bench in the dying stages of Fleetwood’s 2-0 loss against Walsall. At 17 years and 57 days, he was the club’s youngest-ever player.
“It was an unbelievable experience, a day I’ll never forget,” he recalls. “I didn’t really expect it to happen so soon when I was at Fleetwood, to be honest.
“It was an away game, so we stayed overnight on the Friday night, we had the game on the Saturday. And I got brought with the squad, that was my first time travelling.
“I thought I was just going down to be an extra man because usually, they bring one or two men extra in case someone gets injured or something in the warmup. And then in the meeting before the game, he announced the team and the subs, and I was on the bench.
“I didn’t expect to come on or anything. And just with the way the game panned out — they were ahead, the manager told me to warm up around the 80th minute and a couple of minutes later, he put me on.”
“It is nice to see two of the young players on today,” then-manager Joey Barton told reporters afterwards. “I have high hopes and ambitions for young Barry Baggley and Ryan Rydel and we have a couple more coming in behind that.
“We will put the young kids in because they show that determination and desire to be a footballer.
“I thought the young players helped us get more energy and poise in the game, which is incredible to say a 17 and 18-year-old came on and put the senior players to shame.”
Barton has since left Fleetwood. The controversial manager’s reputation has been significantly damaged in the intervening period, by a series of unacceptable comments about women in the sport.
Baggley admits the Barton era was somewhat chaotic and unpredictable at times.
“He’s a bit of a mad character. He has days where he’s just completely normal. And then the next day he can just be completely different. But in terms of football knowledge, he’s good, he knows his stuff and you can tell he’s played at a high level.”
The youngster made two further appearances that campaign, but he has played just nine times during the five seasons since in League One.
He would be open to a more long-term stay in Irish football and suggests there is not “much difference” in the standard compared to England’s third tier.
“The league’s growing and the thing you have with the League of Ireland that you don’t have with League One, and League Two, is the chance of qualifying for Europe. So that’s a big factor as well.”
Baggley admits his career has had plenty of difficult moments since that memorable debut, but the Waterford skipper is determined not to be defined by his setbacks.
“When you’re 17 and you make your debut for Fleetwood, you think it’s all going to go in the right direction. Different things happen and you get injuries and they bring in players. The club goes in a different direction and then you’re up and down, up and down. But you’ve got to stay level-headed and grounded, and hopefully, you come out the other side.”
Waterford consequently feels like a fresh start, with Baggley and co intent on continuing to silence the doubters.
