United’s misery in Sligo continues

Date Published: {J}

Sligo Rovers 1

Galway United 0

by Keith Kelly

THE wait goes on. It is 14 years since Galway United last won a league game in the Showgrounds, and that will run extend to at least July after Sean Connor’s side failed to translate a greater share of possession into goals on Saturday night as the home side recorded their first win of the season thanks to a soft goal from a defensive point of view.

The last time United won in the league at the home of their provincial rivals, Richie Kavanagh began a six week spell at number one in the Irish Singles charts with Aon Focail Eile, Mad Cow Disease hit the news in the UK, and Braveheart won the Oscar for best picture.

United deserved at least a point for their efforts on Saturday night, and had they a greater attacking threat, they might have nicked all three, but as the tired cliché goes, goals win games, and the fact United didn’t register a single shot on target throughout the 90 minutes tells its own story.

It doesn’t tell the whole story, however as United dominated midfield for the first hour and had the majority of the game’s better performers, but they couldn’t find a way through, or around, a home defence which clearly had done its homework on United.

Sligo manager Paul Cook deserves a lot of credit for that as he got his tactics spot-on, the Sligo defence sitting deep, which while allowing United grab a stranglehold in midfield, denied them the space to get in behind the home side’s defence, something which caused Bray Wanderers all sorts of problems the previous week.

In the end, it was the strength in depth of the Sligo squad that made the difference, the introduction of John Dillon and Conor O’Grady early in the second half affording the home side the presence they were missing in a midfield completely dominated by Stephen O’Donnell and Ciaran Foley for the first hour.

Connor has said all along that he feels he has a strong starting XI, but outside of that he is light on options, and Saturday night was the perfect example of that as United had no substitute striker on a bench that was lacking in experience.

The United manager had hoped to give new signing Anto Flood his debut for the club, but the striker was carrying over a one-game suspension from last season and was forced to sit this one out, and United could have used his goal scoring threat up front.

The visitors had plenty of possession, and created their fair share of chances, but for all of Jason Molloy’s work on the night, he was short that little bit of quality to unlock a Sligo defence well marshalled by Gavin Peers and former United defender, Alan Keane.

Both sides showed one change from the previous game, with Stephen O’Donnell, as expected, coming into the United side after being suspended last week, with Gary Curran dropping to the bench, while Mark Donninger came into the centre of midfield for Sligo, with Danny Ventre moving to right back and Paul Whelan dropping out of the squad.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Sentinel.