Tommy Dunne’s side need to put cup final defeat behind them for visit to Tallaght Stadium

One of the hardest things in football is to bounce straight back from a cup final defeat, but that is exactly what Galway United must do when they head to the Tallaght Stadium on Friday night to take on Shamrock Rovers in the league (8pm).

United take on the Hoops just three points off the bottom of the table, and making the club’s first domestic final in almost 19 years will be forgotten if Tommy Dunne’s side make an immediate return to the First Division.

There are just six games left in the season for United, including meetings with two of the three sides below them in the table – Limerick and Sligo Rovers – so their destiny is very much in their own hands.

Six points from those two games – both of which are at home – coupled with some kind of return from the games with Bray Wanderers and the last-day meeting with St Patrick’s Athletic should ensure safety, and their cause would be helped by taking at least a point in Tallaght on Friday.

That would be a tall order at any time – United have lost their last 10 successive league games against the Hoops, including 2-1 and 3-0 reversals this season – but that run has got to end sometime, and Dunne will be hoping that time is Friday night.

It is almost a decade since United last won a league game against Shamrock Rovers, Derek O’Brien scoring the only goal of the game when the sides met in what was then known as Terryland Park in October 2006. In the 20 games since, United have managed just two draws. Hardly the kind of stat that gives confidence ahead of Friday night.

Dunne is definitely without Marc Ludden, who serves a one-match ban for the accumulation of five yellow cards: the suspension actually kicked in last weekend, but the FAI rules state a player will not miss a cup final for a suspension picked up for five yellow cards.

David O’Leary was less fortunate: he missed the defeat to St Patrick’s Athletic due to having picked up eight yellow cards so far this season – it seems the naughtier you are, the heavier the punishment.

However, ban served, O’Leary is back in contention for Friday night, thought he is likely to start on the bench. Ludden’s absence will see Colm Horgan shifted to left-back and Cormac Rafferty coming into the side in the other corner, but it may not be the only change Dunne makes from his cup final starting XI.

Sam Oji was suffering from flu all last week, and then picked up a hamstring strain on Saturday night. Taking a realistic look at things, Dunne may decide not to risk the central defender this Friday, and instead draft in Stephen Walsh to the heart of the defence to give Oji time to recover full health ahead of the visit of Sligo Rovers next Friday.

That Connacht derby was scheduled to be played last weekend, but was obviously postponed due to United’s involvement in the EA Sports Cup Final. Next weekend the FAI Cup takes centre-stage, with the competition at the quarter-final stage, but with both United and Sligo interested ended in the Cup by Dundalk in the Second and Third Rounds respectively, it provided the perfect slot for the postponed game to be rescheduled.

As for matters this Friday night, United will be hoping to do what only St Patrick’s Athletic have managed this season, and that is to win in the league in the Tallaght Stadium. That will be a tall order against a side sitting third in the table, and with one eye on finishing second behind Dundalk, who are 11 points clear at the top and would need a collapse of Devon Loch proportions to throw the league title away at this stage.

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