Galway FC face tough test in away clash with Premier Division leaders Dundalk

Galway FC have a break from league action this weekend with the Third Round of the FAI Ford Cup taking centre-stage, and Tommy Dunne’s side have been handed the draw from hell after being pitted away to Premier Division leaders, Dundalk, in Oriel Park tonight (7.45pm).

Stephen Kenny’s side are unbeaten at home in the league all season, are four points clear at the top of the Premier Division and closing in on the club’s first top-flight title since the 1994/95 season, and dumped Hadjuk Split out of the Europa League – so a handy auld run-out then for the men from the West!

“You know that old cliché where people say they parked the bus – we want to see can we get away with going one step further and actually driving the team bus on to the pitch and parking it in front of goal,” Dunne joked on Wednesday.

He travelled up to the Louth venue last Friday to watch the home side take on Limerick FC, a game they won thanks to a late goal from Loughrea native Pat Hoban, and what he saw did not exactly fill him with confidence.

“They won with a late goal, but they could have been five or six up at that stage. I watched the game with an old team-mate of mine, James Keddy, and I said to him after the game ‘it will be a tough one’ – though they might not exactly be the words I used!” Dunne said.

It was the one draw everyone wanted to avoid and Dunne admits that “a betting man wouldn’t put any money on us beating them”, but he pointed out that sport is never straight forward and his side will travel to Oriel Park confident of getting something from the game.

“We had a very good win against Longford on Saturday night – we might not have played as well as we have done at other times in the season, but we got the three points and that was the most important thing.

“That has helped create a good atmosphere with the lads this week – if we had lost, that would be have been three defeats in a row, but the win away to the best side in the First Division has given us a bit of confidence going in to Friday’s game he said.

Those confidence levels would be even higher if new signing Paddy Barrett was available for the game, but the big centre-half is Cup tied, having featured in Waterford United’s defeat at the hands of Shelbourne in the Second Round.

“We really could have done with Paddy’s physicality at the back, but there is no point dwelling on it – he’s not available, and that’s that,” Dunne said.

With Martin Conneely still ruled out through injury, it is a straight forward choice to bring Alex Byrne back into the side to partner Stephen Walsh at the heart of defence, but there is a slight concern about the former Salthill Devon man, and it is down to the kind of surface Galway FC will play on on Friday night.

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