Malone returns to manage Utd’s FAI Cup winners for memorial tie

Keith Kelly

The manager who led Galway United to FAI Cup success in 1991 is returning to the city this Friday to take charge of some of his former players in a memorial game for one of that winning Cup team which will be played in South Park.

Joe Malone will be on the sidelines for the game between a Galway United selection and a West United XI on Friday (6.30pm), which is being held as part of a night of celebration to remember the late Tommy Keane.

Keane, who died suddenly on December 28 at the age of 44, was a key member of that United squad that lifted the FAI Cup for the one and only time in the club’s history thanks to a 1-0 win over Shamrock Rovers in Lansdowne Road on May 12.

Keane had scored in every round up to the final, finding the net in the games against Cobh Ramblers, Shelbourne, Limerick City and St James’ Gate. He just missed out on completing the full set in the final, but it was from his cross which Johnny Glynn scored the winner four minutes from time.

“86 minutes on the clock, over the top, chased by Keane, but this ball was brilliant – many a lesser player would have been unable to get that back from that position, not only did he get it back, he planted it right into the path of Johnny Glynn and that was sheer perfection,” was RTE commentator George Hamilton’s description of Keane’s role in that Cup-winning goal.

Six of that Cup-winning squad will feature in Friday’s game, with Johnny Morris Burke, Peter Carpenter, Stephen Lally, Noel Mernagh, Jimmy Nolan, Terry O’Regan and Larry Wyse all confirmed for the memorial game.

They will be joined in the United colours by the likes of John Carr, Billy Clery, Mark Cobey, Gareth Gorman, Ollie Neary, Mike Quirke and Paul Reidy, as well as Tommy’s son, Tommy Jnr.

The game will be followed by a night of music and memories in Monroes’s on Dominick Street, with doors opening at 8.30pm. Acts which will feature include Flako, Greg and Mary and Streetwise, and there will be a selection of memorabilia from Tommy’s playing days on show.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Sentinel