Galway United kick off return to Premier Division with home tie against Derry

THE long wait is finally over for local soccer fans as Galway United kick-off their 2015 Airtricity League Premier Division campaign against Derry City in Eamonn Deacy Park this Friday night (7.45pm).

United are back in the top flight of the domestic league for the first time in four seasons, though you wouldn’t think so judging by the FAI’s Media Guide, which lists United as having been formed in 2013, wiping out almost 40 years of involvement in the League of Ireland.

While technically that is true, the spirit of the club today is that of the days of Chick Deacy and Miko Nolan, of Tommy Keane and Eugene Halion, and no amount of bluff from Abbotstown can change that.

The FAI didn’t treat wipe the slate clean on either Cork City or Derry City in 2010, when both names returned to the league under diffculties the previous season. The holding company operating Cork City was wound up by the courts, but a new club under the names Cork City FORAS Co-Op returned; and Derry City was expelled from the league and dissolved and replaced by a new club which operated under the name . . . ‘Derry City’. Both clubs have their pre-2010 history included in this year’s guide.

It is an act of pettiness by the people charged with operating the league, but will just serve to further bolster the fans who refused to let the name Galway United die since those dark days of 2011, when the club lost a staggering 23 games in succession, suffered relegation and was effectively kicked out of the league after being refused a licence by the FAI to compete the following season.

That can’t – and won’t – distract from the buzz of Friday night, and the games come thick and fast for Tommy Dunne’s side, with six outings in four weeks. After Friday night, they host Finn Harps on Monday night in the EA Sports Cup (7.45pm), followed by games against Bohemians, Drogheda, Cork City and Longford Town before the month is out.

However, striker Enda Curran says the fixture list has been kind to United as they play just one of the so-called ‘big five’ – Cork City – in that period, giving the club a great chance to get some early points on the board.

“I don’t know that I would say it is an easy start, but it certainly gives us a chance to get off to a good start as of the ‘big five’, we only play Cork City in the first few weeks,” said Curran – the other clubs in that group which is expected to battle it out for the title are defending champions Dundalk as well as St Patrick’s Athletic, Sligo Rovers and Shamrock Rovers.

“Against those top teams we have to be compact as a unit but we have to go and compete against them. We certainly have the ability – we had a great run at the end of last season, going 11 games unbeaten, and we won promotion by playing some lovely football.

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