United hit ground running in pulling off surprise win

St Patrick’s Athletic 1

Galway United 3

IT’S only the start, but what a start! No-one will be getting carried away with an opening night win against a poor St Patrick’s Athletic last Friday night, but at the same time it would be wrong to just flippantly wave away what was an excellent performance from United on the opening night of the 2016 season.

Forget what you read, or heard, from most Dublin-based outlets over the weekend, or at least those who scrambled for excuses for this ‘shock’ defeat of a team that has won three trophies in the last three seasons, including last year’s EA Sports Cup final success over United.

The line was trotted out that Pats’ manager Liam Buckley handed debuts to four players and that his new-look side would take time to gel. Well, there were five new faces in the United line-up on Friday night compared to the 2015 season, and it didn’t stop them gelling and playing like a aide that means business this year.

United had solid performances all over the pitch, with the new-look spine of the side particularly impressive. Up front, Vinny Faherty is back after his one-year sabbatical at Limerick, and he marked his return with an excellent equalising goal.

John Sullivan dove-tailed beautifully with Ryan Connolly in the centre of the park, playing an enforcer role that allows the new United captain more of a licence to roam, but Sullivan isn’t shy getting forward himself and, like Faherty, he marked  his debut with a goal as well.

But it is the addition of city native Stephen Folan in the heart of defence that could be United’s most important singing this year. He was absolutely immense on Friday night, from his tackling to his reading of the game to his distribution – he is everything United hoped Sam Oji would be last year, except with Folan, he will live up to his billing.

And there should be a nod, too, to his central defensive partner on Friday night, Paul Sinnott. Plenty of people are hailing Armin Aganovic as a key signing for United this season. The Swedish central-defender will miss the first four weeks of the season after a minor operation on his knee on Thursday, but when he is available for selection, he’ll have some job to shift Sinnott.

It may be down to the fact that he is no longer encumbered by the captain’s armband, but Sinnott was an assured presence in the heart of defence on Friday night, already showing a great understanding between himself and Folan that, if it continues, Dunne will find difficult to disrupt.

In fact, almost every single United player excelled on Friday night – Stephen Walsh may have had the distinction of the first booking of the season, a yellow for intentional handball in the 6th minute, but he had a very solid game, as did Colm Horgan in the other full-back slot.

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