Home blues for Galway United

Galway United 1

Waterford FC  3

Patrick Flaherty at Eamon Deacy Park

IT was heartbreak once more for Galway United as their 22-year trophy drought continued on Monday night, a clinical Waterford attack proving decisive as they made the long journey back home with the U19 league trophy.

The visitors took the lead early through a fine strike from Alex Phelan only to be pegged back by a Josh Keane-Quinlivan penalty, but late on the Blues struck twice through Phelan and Darragh Power to break the hearts of the 1,000 strong home crowd.

Galway Utd had some senior experience with the likes of Dara Costelloe and Wilson Waweru having broken into Alan Murphy’s starting 11 at different stages of the season, and Adam Rooney, Ronan Asgari, Josh Keane-Quinlivan and Caoilfhionn O’Dea all being involved in match-day squads.

United U19 manager Nigel Keady may have hoped those experiences would help his troops going into a national final, yet it was the visitors who began the tie the stronger with their pace and power proving very tough to handle.

In particular, Waterford targeted the left channel at every opportunity, looking to find the in-form Alex Phelan who was beating defenders with ease and could’ve easily had two goals in the first five minutes, hitting only air when teed up at the back post and shooting wide from close range at the near post following impressive low crosses from Cameron Power and Colm Whelan.

It was Phelan who broke the deadlock on 10 minutes, Niall O’Keefe threading in a through ball for the winger who utilised his pace to glide past two Galway defenders and blast the ball home impressively from the edge of the box.

The Tribesmen were struggling to create much going forward, with mistakes around the middle leading to easy possessions for Waterford, the men in blue looking very solid defensively in conceding just four fouls inside their own half for the duration of the contest.

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

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.