Bragging rights up for grabs

Date Published: {J}

STEPHEN GLENNON

It might not so much be pride of the parish, but for Galway City’s two First Division clubs, Salthill Devon and Mervue United, one imagines that no quarter will be asked or given when they line out for their Airtricity League game at Drom this Saturday (kick-off 7pm).

When these two great rivals last met at Terryland Park earlier in the season, it took a dramatic stoppage time equaliser from Enda Dunne to earn Salthill a point and deny Mervue United the bragging rights.

It was a fitting end to a fixture that was not short of excitement, with Rory Gaffney believing he had won the game for Mervue with a brace of goals after Mike Kennedy had given Salthill a 40th minute lead.

However, true to the nature of a derby game, Dunne then struck three minutes into injury-time to square it all up.

The question is, however, can Salthill and Mervue serve up much of the same on Saturday?

“It should be a good game and I think everyone is looking forward to it,” said Devon head coach Emlyn Long this week. “We only have Mervue the once in Drom this season, out of our three meetings, so I think our supporters are looking forward to that.

“We are in fairly good shape. We still have a few long term injuries in Mikey Gilmore (cartilage) and Damien O’Reilly (collarbone). Mikey should be back in a fortnight’s time, while it now looks as if it will be September before Damien returns.

“Paddy Quinlan had been out with a hamstring injury, but he is back in training and should be available for selection. James Whelan is also available for selection after serving a suspension.”

Although Devon remain rooted to the bottom of the First Division table, Long has been encouraged by his side’s recent displays.

“We are going alright since we came back from the break. We had a good result against Wexford, drawing that one. We also had a good performance against Monaghan and I think the late goal they scored flattered them somewhat. Against Limerick, we played well for an hour and didn’t for the other half hour and that cost us.”

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.