Galway United opened their 2018 SSE Airtricity League campaign with a fantastic 4-1 victory against Athlone Town – and the result ought to give fans of the Tribesmen plenty of reasons to be cheerful. It had been a long and uncertain off-season for T
Galway United opened their 2018 SSE Airtricity League campaign with a fantastic 4-1 victory against Athlone Town – and the result ought to give fans of the Tribesmen plenty of reasons to be cheerful.
It had been a long and uncertain off-season for The Tribesmen following difficulties off the pitch, but with the Friday night lights once more back on the menu they are rightly being considered one of the favourites to win automatic promotion back to the top tier.
Pre-season results had not gone their way and they endured difficulty finding a regular training ground to hone their tactical preparations but now that they have a win under their belt, they will hope to keep the good times going away to Cobh Ramblers.
Manager Shane Keegan and his troops could easily have allowed those few weeks to get in the way of starting the 2018 First Division with a bang, but their four-goal rout of Aaron O’ Callaghan’s side put paid to any of those fears. After all, the only results that really matter come in the swing of competitive action.
Obviously, Keegan is familiar with the division – having helped Wexford FC (then dubbed Wexford Youths) earn promotion to the top tier back in 2015, the Laois native knows all about negotiating his way through what is regularly a rigorous and testing campaign.
One of the key reasons Keegan was able to get Wexford into the Premier Division was because he got the most out of the clinical Danny Furlong. And, following his game-week one hat-trick, the signs look good that the man who only recently returned from New Zealand can recapture his 28 goal-a-season form.
Although Furlong went off in the closing stages of United’s opening-day victory, Keegan was eager to assure the media huddle that it was nothing too serious.
“He was reaching for his calves in the last 10 minutes. He says it’s nothing major – he didn’t play [against Shelbourne] because he was flying a 38-hour flight which would probably give you tight enough calves as well. So, look, a bit of recovery on the weekend…and hopefully he should be fine.”
Keegan was full of praise for Furlong and put him on par with Sean Maguire in the ability to put the ball in the back of the net.
"I’ve said it before, of all the players I’ve managed to coach – I was lucky enough to have Maguire for a few years – inside the 18-yard box, they’re both head and shoulders above anyone else I’ve had the opportunity to coach. [Furlong] is just absolutely lethal,” Keegan said.
As evidenced by his early display, Furlong’s presence in the squad will make The Tribesmen contenders for automatic promotion – if not a place in the relegation/promotion play-off battle at the very least.
The other massive positive for United in 2018 is that they have signed up two players that were among the 2016 Limerick FC side that won the First Division at a canter – Robbie Williams and Stephen Kenny (who scored against Shelbourne in pre-season and looked very lively last Friday night). Their combined experience at this level could be crucial over the course of the season.
Bringing club legend Alan Murphy in from West United will also lift the spirits massively and bestow the Corribsiders with the necessary level-headed know-how of game management. Having played at the top level of League of Ireland football for so long, the central midfielder’s insight is sure to be invaluable and he will be looked to as a source of inspiration by some of the younger guys in the squad. Moreover, he will be on a personal vendetta of his own – he needs one more goal to equal the 74 strikes netted by Paul “Ski” McGee as the top scorer in Galway’s club history.
Arguably the best signing made by Keegan over the last few weeks, though, has been the acquisition of Mayo native Ryan Connolly – the newly-appointed captain is essentially an adopted Galwegian by now having already been the skipper at the club as well as representing them from 2014 to 2016 before he moved to Shamrock Rovers.
Connolly is a real craftsman with the ball at his feet and he will be expected to link-up effectively with Furlong, Eoin McCormack, Gary Shanahan and other attacking squad members. If he can produce some slick passing and be the pivotal playmaker Galway need, they should continue to be a real attacking joy to behold on the First Division circuit.
Furlong may have grabbed all the headlines from the win over Athlone, but Ronan Manning (brother of the current Queens Park Rangers midfielder, Ryan) was in top form as well. His energy and vision was a joy to behold throughout the match – but Keegan had a word of warning for the youngster.
“For whatever reason he was constantly top-notch in training last year, despite never getting a run out his work-rate and everything in training was brilliant. Whatever got into his head in the last two weeks, he hadn’t been the same man, and he got a bit of a verbal rocket after the Shels game…and he gave a tremendous response.
“I think he’s brilliant. I said on numerous occasions last year in training that he just looked outstanding, but he was just so unfortunate that he was a Ronan Murray clone. It was very hard to get the two of them into the same team.”
The season is a long and tricky one for all the teams – but with a potent blend of youth, experience, skill and tactical audacity, United should be backed to finish near the top and push for an automatic return to the top flight.
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