Star player Connolly eager to stay put with Galway FC

THE celebrations for Galway FC continue this weekend when the club holds its end of season awards in Monroes on Dominick Street on Saturday night, and the man tipped to take the Tommy Keane Player of the Year gong says he has no interest in playing anywhere else next season.

Ryan Connolly was a key player for the side in their march to promotion, and while some suitors are believed to be interested in snapping-up the Mayo native, the midfielder says there is only one club he wants to be at next season.

“You’ll have to ask the manager that question, that’s not up to me, that’s up to him,” he said when asked by Sentinel Sport if he was planning at being at the club again next season.

“I’d love to stay, it’s a great club, and it is only going in the right direction. The fans tonight turned out in massive numbers, it was a great atmosphere and we had unreal support for the away games in Tolka and Belfield.

“It’s an unreal club there’s nothing more than I’d love to stay but that’s up to the manager, I don’t know what’s going to happen next season, just have to wait and see,” he said.

Connolly always felt that whichever side won the First Division play-off would secure promotion, and he said that his team’s recent run of form was rewarded in the end.

“I had it in my head a long time ago that whoever won the First Division playoff would go up. We had a good enough squad to win the league but we didn’t so we had to get our heads right again and go again for the playoffs and fair play to everyone, they did and we are going up!

“We had a slow start to the season but that’s understandable – it was a new squad, new club, new everything! We started quite slow but that’s nine wins and two draws now in our last 11 games and that speaks for itself – they say you get what you deserve in this game, sometimes you don’t but thankfully this time we did,” he said.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Sentinel.