Galway Utd hit the road

ONE of the longest off-seasons in European football comes to an end this Friday as Galway United make the trip to Richmond Park to face St Patrick’s Athletic (7.45pm) on the opening weekend of the 2016 League of Ireland season.

United manager Tommy Dunne has added a number of new faces to his squad, while there are some notable absentees from last year – Jake Keegan, Sam Oji, Jason Molloy and David O’Leary, for example – but the feeling is United have a stronger and more physical squad than the 2015 campaign, which saw them finish just outside the relegation play-off spot, but reach the final of the EA Sports Cup.

An improved league finish is the obvious goal for 2016, and going one better in one of the cup competitions wouldn’t go astray either – one bookmaker has United at odds of 10/1 to lift a trophy this season – and Dunne feels he has both the players, and preparations, in place to hit those targets.

“I think our preparation this year has been that bit better this year and the squad is more ready for the start of the season. We weren’t ready last year for various reasons, but we were quicker getting the group together this year so we are probably happier where we are at, but only time will tell,” he told Tribune Sport at the club’s open training session on Tuesday.

Dunne has put together a squad of 26 players for the season ahead, 10 of whom are new faces for 2016, and the message he has been driving home for the past six weeks of pre-season training has been the need for a good start to the campaign, despite what looks like a tough opening few weeks.

Newly promoted last season, United were desperately slow out of the blocks, losing six of their first seven league games as the pace and standard of top flight football appeared to catch many of the players by surprise.

“It is important we start better than last year, we had a poor start last year, but we have a really tough start this season, with three of our first four games away from home. You open with a game in Inchicore against a Pats side that are one of the favourites for the title, and you also have to travel to Sligo and Derry, which are always tough places to go.

“Then you have Bray in Galway, who have strengthened the squad fiercely this year, so it will be a tough start. But we are physically better this year, so as long as we are clued in and tuned in, then I am hoping we’ll have a better start,” Dunne says.

United have had a mixed pre-season, recording wins over NUI Galway (7-0), UCD (2-0) and Longford Town (4-0), but losing to both Shelbourne (2-1) and Limerick (3-1), but Dunne says those results – good and bad – are of little relevance once the competitive side of things begins.

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