Insipid United miss chance to move into play-off spots

Galway United 0

Cobh Ramblers 1

Keith Kelly at Eamonn Deacy Park

Galway United were brought back to earth last Friday night as Cobh Ramblers punished a slack display by the home side to claimed a deserved three points.

Truth be told, when you consider their previous two home performances, this defeat didn’t come as too much of a shock. It was said at the time that the win over Shamrock Rovers’ teenagers was daylight – well, floodlight – robbery; and a better team than Wexford would have punished another flawed display from United the previous week.

Well, Cobh rolled into town last Friday, a better team than Wexford, and duly punished a poor United performance to end John Caulfield’s record-equalling winning start as a United manager. There was only the one goal in it in the end, but make no mistake, the better team on the night took the spoils as United’s shortcomings were exposed time and again.

In fairness, there were mitigating factors: you can’t lose half of the defence that has kept three clean sheets in its previous four games and not expect there to be some collateral damage. Marc Ludden sat out Friday’s defeat through suspension, but will be back soon.

Kevin Farragher, on the other hand, has played his last game for United after moving to England to attend university, and his loss was sorely felt on Friday night. Without the big man beside him, Killian Brouder looked uncertain, and United’s cause really wasn’t helped when Maurice Nugent – who would have replaced Farragher – was ruled out the previous Tuesday due to concussion protocols, meaning Cian Murphy came in alongside Brouder.

Shane Doherty also missed out through injury, resulting in a third change to the side that had beaten Wexford, and the loss of balance and fluidity in the side was evident from the start on Friday.

United had, in recent games, appeared to have solved their long-standing problem of being utterly incapable of defending set-pieces. ‘Ha’, laughed the visitors, remembering the bounty they collected from deadball situations in the St Colman’s Park meeting between the sides back in August, and they reaped another rich harvest on Friday night.

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

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