Lomboto strike gives United ideal lift in pre-season clash

GALWAY United opened their schedule of pre-season friendlies with a win last Sunday as Francely Lomboto pounced five minutes from time to score the only goal of the game against Finn Harps at Eamonn Deacy Park.

The fixture saw United manager John Caulfield give 21 players some game-time, including the returning Stephen Walsh, who has been so impressive in the last three weeks of pre-season training that the city native was offered – and signed – a contract this week.

“He has been brilliant with us in pre-season, and both he, and we, are delighted he is back. We would have spoken before Christmas and said, look, get your head down and put in the work and we’ll see how it goes in pre-season.

“I have to say, he has come back in great shape – he obviously took care of himself when he went back playing junior football, and he continued to work hard over the winter. He has a great attitude, he is a very gifted footballer and it is great to have a local lad with that kind of experience back with the side,” Caulfield said.

This will be Walsh’s eighth season with United, having first joined in 2010, making his debut a month shy of his 20th birthday when coming on as a 71st minute substitute to replace Derek O’Brien in a 3-0 defeat to Sligo Rovers in the Showgrounds.

He went on to make 204 league and cup appearances for United and captained the club for the 2019 season. He has scored 11 goals for the club, but is better known for his no-nonsense approach to tackling, picking up five red cards during his time at United. He spent the 2017 season at Longford Town, and while he was the 2019 captain, he did not return to the club last season.

The issue of captaincy is something Caulfield has not yet decided upon for the upcoming season, with all the focus so far on getting the players in shape for a campaign that was at long last finalised last week with the confirmation that Treaty United from Limerick will complete the 10-team line-up for the 2021 First Division campaign.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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