Sports
Galway FC rise to the occasion in earning promotion to the top flight football
Galway FC’s promotion celebrations will continue this weekend when the club holds its Player of the Year awards in Monroe’s Tavern in the city on Saturday (8pm), but work has already begun on planning for life in the top flight of Irish football next season.
Friday night’s 3-0 win over UCD secured a 5-1 aggregate win for Galway FC in the SSE Airtricity League promotion final and with it a place in the Premier Division next season, capping a magical season for the Tribesmen.
Tommy Dunne was back at his desk in Eamonn Deacy Park on Monday, after spending the weekend celebrating with officials and fans as well as family and friends, which included attending the FAI Cup Final in the Aviva Stadium on Sunday.
“It was a great weekend, people were constantly coming up to me at the cup final congratulating Galway on getting back to the Premier Division, there is a lot of goodwill out there towards the club.
“I’m delighted to be at the top table again, I think it’s important for a club this size to be in the Premier Division – you’ve no divine right, you have to earn it and those players earned it out there, they were brilliant,” Dunne said.
Dunne will obviously need to improve his squad for the step-up in quality they will face next season, but he will need an increased budget to do so, and talks on what kind of money is available for him for 2015 began this week, although lessons from the past will clearly be heeded.
“We go to the top flight, we are going to have to work harder on and off the pitch, we have to generate more money to maybe invest more in the team and the structures of the club, but we are not going to start throwing money at it just because we are in the Premier Division.
“There are a lot of people around here that know what happened when those days were around, but for us it will need to be increased and we will have to work hard as a club to get more sponsorship. Of course you’ll have to increase your budget but what it is, we don’t know yet,” he said.
That said, there won’t be wholesale changes, and the one quality he is looking for is, in his own words, “hunger”.
“The game is about players and if you don’t have hungry players and you don’t have players who are prepared to do the work week in week out and listen and learn and fight and die for each other, well then you are wasting your time,” he said.
One of the most impressive parts of this season is in relation to Dunne’s players – the starting XI on Friday night had an average age of just 22, the youngest squad across both divisions, and 13 of the 18-man match-day squad hail from Galway, with three others from neighbouring counties of Mayo, Westmeath and Limerick. Paddy Parrett (Waterford) and Jake Keegan (America) were the other two.
While Dunne admits his side’s slow start to the season – they had to wait five games for their first win – it was really their third quarter of the season which cost them a shot at the title, with the side taking just seven points from a possible 21 in that little run from June to August.
However, after suffering a 1-0 defeat away to Wexford Youths on August 8, Dunne’s side rallied for the last quarter of the campaign and wouldn’t lose again, wining their next five games and then drawing their last two to book their place in the play-offs.
They then clinched promotion in clinical style, beating both Shelbourne and UCD home and away to win 4-1 and 5-1 on aggregate respectively, and that run of form is something Dunne wants to tap into at the start of next season.
For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.
Galway 3-18
Cork 1-10
NEW setting; new opposition; new challenge. It made no difference to the Galway minor hurlers as they chalked up a remarkable sixth consecutive double digits championship victory at Semple Stadium on Saturday.
The final scoreline in Thurles may have been a little harsh on Cork, but there was no doubting Galway’s overall superiority in setting up only a second-ever All-Ireland showdown against Clare at the same venue on Sunday week.
Having claimed an historic Leinster title the previous weekend, Galway took a while to get going against the Rebels and also endured their first period in a match in which they were heavily outscored, but still the boys in maroon roll on.
Beating a decent Cork outfit by 14 points sums up how formidable Galway are. No team has managed to lay a glove on them so far, and though Clare might ask them questions other challengers haven’t, they are going to have to find significant improvement on their semi-final win over 14-man Kilkenny to pull off a final upset.
Galway just aren’t winning their matches; they are overpowering the teams which have stood in their way. Their level of consistency is admirable for young players starting off on the inter-county journey, while the team’s temperament appears to be bombproof, no matter what is thrown at them.
Having romped through Leinster, Galway should have been a bit rattled by being only level (0-4 each) after 20 minutes and being a little fortunate not to have been behind; or when Cork stormed out of the blocks at the start of the second half by hitting 1-4 to just a solitary point in reply, but there was never any trace of panic in their ranks.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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GALWAY United need to guard against any kind of complacency when they make the short hop down the M18 this Friday to take on Treaty United at the Markets Field (7.45pm).
The game is a meeting of the two form teams in the division, and as in previous meetings between the sides, will have an additional edge given the number of former United players in the home side’s ranks, and the pair of Limerick lads playing for United.
There might have been just the eight meetings between the sides since Treaty became the latest iteration to represent Limerick in the League of Ireland in 2021, and while United have yet to lose to the men in the candy-cane strips, there has never been more than a goal in four of their eight wins.
The most recent of those was back in February, when Rob Slevin scored the only goal of the game in Eamonn Deacy Park after a tough battle against a side who made a slow start to the season, before finally finding their groove in the past month.
Having taken just three points from their first six games before finally getting a win against Longford Town, they reverted to type with just one point from their next three games, but are now on a run of four wins on the spin, scoring 12 goals and conceding just one.
Their most recent win was a 3-0 victory away to Longford Town last Saturday, and they could have won by double that against the only side to have beaten United this season. That in itself is a warning.
For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Soccer Wrap with Mike Rafferty
While the Salthill Devon men’s team might have lost their grip on the Connacht Junior Cup that they held for two seasons, the club’s women’s side have picked up the mantle and on Sunday last in Headford were crowned provincial champions with a 4-3 win over Manulla.
Following midweek wins for Maree/Oranmore and Knocknacarra, the stage is now almost set for the semi-finals of the Michael Byrne Cup with Salthill Devon meeting St Bernard’s on Sunday in an outstanding quarter-final, with the winners advancing to a semi-final against Maree/Oranmore, while Colga will face Knocknacarra in the other last four contest.
Just one league issue remains to be decided, with the Championship runners-up position up for grabs, as Dynamo Blues have to win their two remaining games in order to overtake Colemanstown United who have finished their programme.
WOMEN’S CONNACHT CUP FINAL
Salthill Devon 4
Manulla 3
Ellerose O’Flaherty scored twice as Salthill Devon were crowned provincial champions with a win over a Mayo side who were losing in the final for the second year in succession.
Backboned by a number of players who previously had League of Ireland experience with Galway WFC, Devon suffered an early set back when Jess Nolan put Manulla ahead, before O’Flaherty levelled matters with a cracking finish on 20 minutes, which was quickly followed by a long-range free-kick from Aoife Walsh.
For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
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