Late heartache for 10-man Galway United

Galway United                  1

Longford Town                 2

Tragedy struck deep into second half stoppage time for Galway United last Friday night as Longford Town departed Eamonn Deacy Park with all three points thanks to Don Cowan’s heartbreakingly late goal in a contest that featured three dismissals.

Tommy Dunne’s side were rightly lauded for their show of defiance a week previously when holding out against Drogheda United for over an hour with ten men, but the footballing gods conspired against them on this occasion as Cowan profited in the third minute of added time after the home side failed to properly clear Martin Deady’s in-swinging corner.

It was a deeply frustrating finale for a side who had once more taken an early lead through Jake Keegan, only to once more be left a man short as Stephen Walsh was sent for an early shower on 26 minutes. It was eerily the exact same minute that Sam Oji had been red carded, erroneously on second viewing, a week earlier and in a similar area of the pitch, but United this time had a hand in their own downfall.

Having worked their way out of a tight situation neatly, Galway took on one short pass too many in their own defence and Stephen Rice spotted the opportunity to pressurise Oji, whose attempted clearance ricocheted off the midfielder and into the path of Gary Shaw, who was brought down on the edge of the area by Walsh.

It was an utterly avoidable situation which undermined all of Galway’s early endeavour and gave Tony Cousins’ side territorial advantage for the remainder of the contest. To compound matters, Longford had the added boost of equalising on the stroke of half time, giving themselves a full 45 minutes to carve out a winner, although it took an additional three for them to do so.

Insult was added to injury after Cowan’s strike when Oji and Longford Town’s Pat Flynn were both shown straight red cards following an altercation in the penalty area. This will create some serious selection issues for Tommy Dunne as he will be without what appears to be his first choice centre half pairing for the upcoming games away to Shamrock Rovers and at home to Sligo Rovers.

Following on from a comprehensive defeat away to Cork City, Dunne made four changes to his starting line-up, not all of them enforced, as Colm Horgan and Enda Curran returned, while Sam Oji was recalled to the heart of defence after serving a short suspension. The most surprising call, though, saw Conor Winn take over in goals as Connor Gleeson’s unconvincing form under the high ball saw him demoted to the bench.

Full report in this week’s Connacht Tribune.