Curran grabs a hat-trick in five-star display by Galway United

Bray Wanderers 0

Galway United 5

Galway United came of age in the Premier Division on Saturday evening when Tommy Dunne’s side finally put in a complete 90-minute performance – and the finishing to match – to blow away the challenge of a woeful Bray Wanderers in the Carlisle Grounds.

United have performed well in patches in most games this season, and while the results haven’t matched that, there was the feeling that once they ‘clicked’, they would do some damage. Cue Saturday evening.

It’s not being greedy to say United could – and possibly should – have won by more. They opened the scoring after just 84 seconds, and could have put the game to bed after just five minutes. They had 16 shots on target, were narrowly wide with a couple more and restricted the home side to testing Ger Hanley just the once – rarely can the goalkeeper have had a quieter night between the sticks.

It was wonderful to watch if your alignment was with the men from the West, and the 60 or so noisy fans who made the trip to Bray will have a job to enjoy a better day by the seaside this year.

They had stars to hail all over the pitch, but Enda Curran’s first Premier Division hat-trick rightly grabs the headlines. His haul moves him to second in the Premier Division scoring charts, but more importantly has helped United jump three places in the table to eighth with one game left in the first round of fixtures.

It was just a third win in 10 games, but it should be noted that Tommy Dunne’s side have played every one of the top four away from home this season, and now that the young squad seems to have finally found its feet, a mid-table position is well within their grasp.

Of course, saying that makes a hostage to fortune for the visit of St Patrick’s Athletic this Friday night, but if nothing else it should be an entertaining game which the home side will approach bursting with confidence.

Curran fired United into the lead in the second minute on Saturday evening when Bray ’keeper Stephen McGuinness made a hames of dealing with a Ryan Connolly corner from the right, only managing to palm the ball straight to Padraic Cunningham. The Headford teenager flicked the ball to his strike partner, and Curran drilled a half-volley into the net.

Connolly fired straight at McGuinness two minutes later when clean through on goal; and Jake Keegan headed wide when left unmarked on the edge of the six yard box 60 seconds later. United threatened to run riot, but had to wait until four minutes before the break to extend their lead.

The home side should have been reduced to 10 men in the 10th minute when Cunningham hassled Hugh Douglas into making a mistake, and defender playing the ball straight to Curran who got in behind Alan McNally and clear on goal.

The defender appeared to clip Curran inside the box. Stephen Walsh and Sam Oji were show red cards for similar incidents this season, but Dublin referee Dave McKeon saw nothing wrong with the challenge and waved play on.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.