Galway United fail to expose 10-man visitors

Galway United 0

 Derry City 0

THEY huffed and they puffed, but Galway United could not breach the walls of Derry on Friday night, despite playing for more than an hour against 10 men.

The home side dominated possession, and had 17 efforts on goal compared to Derry’s three, but apart from an impressive opening 15 minutes or so, they didn’t play with any real conviction and really, they got what they deserved.

There were a couple of decent performances – Kilian Cantwell burst a gut throughout the 90 minutes, and Stephen Folan was immense on his return from injury – but yet again, too many players were below par. And there also needs to be question marks over decisions made – or, more correctly, not made – by the United management throughout the game.

Not only did the visitors lose midfielder Conor McCormack to two yellow cards in the first-half, they also saw the departure of both strikers – Lucas Schubert and Rory Patterson – to injury before half-time.

However, United failed to react with a change of tactics, persisting in leaving four defenders to keep an eye on Nathan Boyle, who was pushed up front after that double substitution – and continued to do so even with Boyle’s contribution hampered to such an extent that he spent a large portion of the second-half playing with a limp.

The home side persisted in trying to attack Derry down the flanks, with the majorty of incursions into the opposition penalty area coming from Cantwell crosses from the right, which Derry more than coped with. The home side rarely drove at the heart of the Derry defence, a lack of creativity that was hugely frustrating for the home fans and maybe Tommy Dunne needs to freshen things up in the centre of midfield.

Dunne did make three changes during the game, but the first two were enforced due to injury, and the third saw Marc Ludden taken off five minutes from time before he was sent-off by referee Jim McKell, having been booked in the 50th minute, and then given a final warning after a couple of more fouls.

Derry were there for the taking, but rather than be pro-active, the United bench was reactive, and all concerned should do a bit of soul searching during the three-week mid-season break.

Dunne made just one change to the side beaten by Sligo Rovers the previous week, with fit-again Folan coming in for the suspended Armin Aganovic.

United tore into the visitors from the first whistle, showing a hunger that had been missing in recent games, and played a lovely passing game that was perfectly suited to an immaculate playing surface that had been watered before the game, but they just failed to find the finishing touch.

Full report in this week’s Connacht Tribune.