Pathetic mob overshadow Sligo loss

Date Published: 22-Apr-2008

NEW Galway United manager Jeff Kenna may or may not be a religious man, but he will do well to heed a quote by religious poet Khalil Gibran: ‘the optimist sees the rose and not its thorns; the pessimist stares at the thorns, oblivious of the rose’.

United slumped to a fifth successive defeat when turned over in the Showgrounds on Saturday night, but it is not stretching things to say they did not deserve to lose, never mind lose so convincingly on the scoreboard.

The scoreline looks bad — it was United’s worst defeat in the Showgrounds in 17 years, but for the best part of an hour United looked like they would record their first win of the season.

United officials insist the squad of players at the club is good enough to climb away from the three relegation spots, and there is plenty of evidence to back up those claims. The hope now has to be that a fresh face can bring the best out of the squad.

Problems up front remain, however, Billy Clery’s side failing to convert chances into goals on Saturday, and once they went behind just after the hour mark, any bit of confidence quickly evaporated and from there, there was always going to be only one outcome.

It was an ugly end to Clery’s reign as caretaker manager, the Claddagh man’s final act to correctly confront the drunken baying mob of so-called United ‘supporters’ who spent the last 10 minutes or so of the game jeering one of their own players.

Mark Leech was wrong to ‘flip the bird’ to United fans, and he can expect to be censured and fined, but the ………………….