Spirited United show that their season is not a lost cause – yet

Date Published: 03-May-2011

SPIRIT on its own only goes so far for a team which lacks the ability to put the ball in the opposition’s net as a much improved Galway United side discovered when they allowed a below-par Shamrock Rovers to escape with all three Premier Division points on offer at Terryland Park on Friday night.

There were huge positives to be taken from this performance against the champions and league leaders, given the poverty of the previous displays against Derry City and Bray Wanderers, but the most telling statistic of all is that United have still managed just one goal in front of their own faithful in 450 minutes of football at Terryland this season.

In completing the first round of nine League matches, United find themselves embroiled in a relegation battle yet again, but at least team manager Sean Connor could take encouragement from the battling qualities shown by his side after the blow of conceding an early goal and the first half injuries which forced him to withdraw two key men.

It was hardly an ideal scenario on an evening in which Connor handed debuts to midfielder Gary Kelly and Shane Keogh, who played off lone front man Alan Murphy, while former Salthill player Mikey Grealish also made his first appearance as a second half substitute.

But scoring goals remains the biggest problem for Connor’s side. How they could do with a striker of the calibre of Karl Sheppard, who impressed so much in a Galway shirt last season but ended up the villain of the night by scoring the game’s only goal.

Sheppard refused to celebrate his sixth minute header, giving an indication of how much he enjoyed his spell at Terryland, and how Connor must have rued how he was forced to let the striker go in the mass clearout of players at the end of last season.

For a full match report see page 19 of this week’s Connacht Sentinel