Late Manning penalty secures win for Galway FC

Galway FC manager Tommy Dunne was a relieved man in St Colman’s Park on Saturday night after his side snatched an injury time winner against Cobh Ramblers.

Ryan Manning converted a 96th minute penalty to make it five wins on the bounce for Dunne’s side, and while the manager was delighted to have taken all three points, there was little else by way of celebration when he spoke to Sentinel Sport.

“My head is wrecked. We didn’t play well at all. We score with a great goal, all we have to do is keep a clean sheet and go home, forget about everything else, but some of our decision making regarding balls going forward was poor.

“I think some of these guys need to learn about closing out games. Sometimes it doesn’t have to be pretty, that’s a car park out there, the pitch, it’s desperate, but I said to the lads I think we deserved that bit of luck because over the year, we hadn’t got much,” he said.

While his side have rightly been praised all season for trying to get the ball down and work it up the pitch, some games require more of a route one approach, and Dunne admitted Saturday was one such instance.

“We have drilled ourselves as a football team not to be whacking it up the pitch, but I’m telling the lads tonight to go long, which is completely foreign to them all season. You have to do that as balls are kicking up around your neck – on a normal pitch you tell them to do what we do, but tonight you had to change your tactics in a sense.

“Their goal comes from a set-piece that was caused, not so much by dilly-dallying, but by not putting your boot through the ball when it’s needed, but we take the three points and we move on to the next matches,” he said.

There are two games to go in the regular season, and while Longford Town’s win over Waterford United on Friday night means the title is now beyond Galway FC, they can still not only secure a play-off spot, but the added bonus of having home advantage in the second-leg by overtaking Shelbourne in the table.

Shels lost 3-2 away to Finn Harps on Friday night, and they host Galway FC in Tolka Park this Friday night with a three point cushion over Dunne’s side, but an inferior goal difference of +16 compared to Galway FC’s +24, so Galway FC will overtake them with a win on the northside of Dublin.

While Wexford Youths are technically still in the play-off hunt – until tonight at least, when anything less than a win over Finn Harps will end their hopes – the two sides likely to meet in that two-leg encounter will be Galway FC and Shelbourne.

So in one way, Friday’s game will be the start of the two-leg promotion play-off between the sides, as whichever team wins on Friday night will have a massive psychological boost over the other ahead of the play-offs.

The team that finishes third will be at home on Friday October 17, before travelling to the home of the second-placed team on Friday October 24. The winners of that two-leg play-off will meet the side that finishes 11th in the Premier Division over two legs on Monday October 27 and Friday October 31, with a draw to be made to see who has home advantage in the second leg.

The Galway United Supporters Trust will be running a bus to Friday’s game in Tolka Park. The bus will depart from The Dáil Bar on Middle Street at 4pm and seats can be booked by contacting Ronan Coleman at (087) 6972823 or Dominick Walsh at (087) 9163438.