Caulfield hopes for big crowd for game against side he has tipped as title favourites

Sometimes in sport you travel more in hope than in expectation, and you could certainly make an argument that Galway United supporters took that approach on the long trek south last Friday for their side’s opening league game with Cork City.

United hadn’t won in Cork since 1993, and that was in Bishopstown: you had to go back to January 1988 for a last win in Turners Cross, when Noel Mernagh scored twice, and Paul McGee got the other in a 3-1 win for United over a home side whose goal came from a certain John Caulfield.

The Leesiders were the only side United failed to beat last season, and when you consider the fact that City opened their league campaign with a 6-0 thrashing of Bray Wanderers a week earlier, it would have taken a lot of confidence to predict a United win.

The visitors needed to make a statement of intent, and maybe the omens were good from the start, when Conor McCormack won the coin toss, meaning City would not be attacking the vociferous Shed End in the second-half, as is their wont.

“We knew Cork City would put us under a lot of pressure we knew we would have defend well,” the United manager said after a game he had to watch the game from the stands, as he was serving a one-match suspension that had been carried over from last season.

“We worked hard all week, you come down here knowing what to expect, you expect Cork to have a lot of the ball, but we defended really, really well.

“In fairness to Conor Kearns, he made a couple of good saves and I think we got a fantastic goal. I thought we were very good in the first-half, and I think Wilson’s sending off was harsh. We are down to 10 men, we are in front of 5,000 people, there is an incredible atmosphere in an incredible stadium, but I thought our lads worked their socks off,” said Caulfield.

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

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