Curran’s early strike enough to see Galway United home

Galway United 1

Wexford 0

Keith Kelly at Eamonn Deacy Park

YOU can be a good manager, and you can be a lucky manager – on the evidence of his first batch of league games in charge of Galway United, John Caulfield appears to be both, with further evidence coming in last Friday night’s grinding win over Wexford.

When Enda Curran headed United into a 10th minute lead, it looked for all intents and purposes that the home side were set for a stroll in the park against a side that was there for the taking. Instead, the men in white – they were forced to change from their traditional maroon by match referee, Robert Dowling, because he was worried United’s maroon and Wexford’s pink would be a colour clash – huffed and puffed to the three points.

That’s not to say it wasn’t a deserved victory – United were the better side on the night by some distance, but you got the feeling that a better side than Wexford would have punished them for failing to kill-off the game.

Still, you can only beat what’s put in front of you, so there is no point in the ‘ifs and buts’ of what a better side would have done, for on Friday night, the better side did what was needed – they scored more, and conceded less, than their opponents and claimed the three points.

“The first 20-25 minutes we were really good, our passing was excellent, we go the early goal and I felt Wexford were really on the rack. We needed to get the second goal, and had a few opportunities, but didn’t take them and Wexford gained confidence form that.

“We didn’t play as well in the second-half, and while they didn’t really create any chances, they did look dangerous on the break. There were positives, we got the three points and it was our second clean sheet, we just had to dig deep and we did.

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

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