Improved performance goes without reward as Galway United lose again

Date Published: {J}

Galway United 0

Bohemian FC 3

Keith Kelly

Another game, another defeat, but despite suffering their 27th loss in the League this season, the dedicated 600-plus souls who haven’t given up on their local side were given a glimpse of a brighter future in Terryland Park on Friday night.

Club legend ‘Jumbo’ Brennan was unable to make his magic wok in relation to the outcome of the game, but it has taken him just a couple of games in charge to stamp his approach to the beautiful game on the disillusioned side he inherited from Sean Connor, and it is an approach which was appreciated by the home fans on Friday night.

Gone was the horrendous ‘hoof-ball’ approach United fans have become accustomed to in recent seasons, as on Friday night the home side tried to string the passes together and play the game where it belongs – on the ground.

True, there were times when they overdid it, and more than once caused themselves problems when trying to play the ball out from the back when putting the boot through the ball would have been the better option. However it was refreshing to see the side trying to express itself and build a bit of confidence by retaining possession, rather than just ‘lorrying’ the ball up the pitch every time.

“It’s all about keeping possession. If you keep possession, you make the other team work hard, if you keep kicking the ball away, you give them possession and get knackered trying to chase after the ball, so you have to make the other team work.

“We didn’t go out to defend, and we won’t. My whole style of play is to go out, keep it tight and keep us in the game, I don’t want us to be 3 or 4 down at half time, I want us to be competitive, but at the same time I want us to express ourselves and keep the ball, not giving it away all the time,” Brennan said after the game.

The caretaker manager spoke with a refreshing honesty after the game, refusing to criticise a refereeing performance which many felt was substandard, and instead insisting the officials got the two major decision on the night – the dismissal of Stephen Walsh, and the awarding of a penalty to Bohs – bang on the money.

Walsh had been booked in the 11th minute for a late lunge on Liam Burns that eventually forced the Bohs centre-back to hobble off before the break, and he picked up his second yellow of the game, followed by red, in the 56th minute when preventing Bohs from taking a quick free-kick just inside their own half.

The decision incensed the United players and the home crowd, but Brennan insisted after the game that Rob Rogers was correct to dismiss the United youngster.

“It was the right decision because he [Walsh] didn’t move back. It was a schoolboy error and he has to learn from that, he’ll miss a game or two and might find it hard to get back into the side when he does return,” Brennan said.

The second big decision of the night came from the resulting free-kick, when Ger O’Brien’s set-piece into the box saw Christy Fagan get entangled with Yob Son before falling to the deck. Rogers pointed to the spot, and Fagan dusted himself down to send Conor Winn the wrong way from 12 yards.

“It was a penalty, the two players clashed in the box and, well, put it like this, if it was in their box, we’d be shouting for a penalty, so yeah, can’t have any complaints about that decision,” Brennan said.

That 60-second spell as good as settled the game which had seen Bohs take the lead after just 9 minutes, and given the form of United this season, there was no way they were going to come from two goals down, with just 10 men, against a side that still harbours title hopes, however faint they may be.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Sentinel.