Out of sorts United fail to exploit bonus of own goal

Longford Town 2

Galway United 1

A disjointed and one-dimensional Galway United surrendered the last remaining unbeaten run in the First Division on Friday night as the Tribesmen slipped to a deserved defeat away to Longford Town.

Far too many players had an off night for a United side that, having started relatively positively, just seemed to abandon any attempt to play football on the deck once they took the lead, with mis-placed passes and long balls forward seeing the visitors surrender possession time and again.

United edged what was a scrappy opening 10 minutes as both sides sized each other up, and thought they had opened the scoring in the seventh minute when Charlie Lyons – one of three changes from the side that started against Athlone Town the previous weekend – rose highest to head home Dave Hurley’s free-kick, but the offside flag dampened the celebrations.

It was a tight call but one the officials got right, but the United highs 5s and mutual back-slapping was only temporarily delayed when they were gifted the opener when Michael McDonnell passed the ball straight into his own net four minutes later.

That should have seen United take a stranglehold of the game, but instead the United players seemed to increasingly drop back towards their own penalty area as the first-half wore on, conceding possession and territory to a home side that was no great shakes, but grew in confidence with every passing minute.

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

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