United’s horror show leaves club battling for survival

Galway United 1

Limerick FC 3

IT is not quite ‘trick or treat’ time yet, but Halloween came early to Eamonn Deacy Park on Friday night after a horror show from the home side saw them dragged right back into relegation trouble.

Their most insipid display of the season saw United undo all their good work against Sligo Rovers the previous week as Limerick’s win sees the Blues move to within three points of United with just three games remaining.

Both Drogheda United and Sligo Rovers sit between United and Limerick at the foot of a table that is more congested than evening traffic in and around the city, and Tommy Dunne’s side desperately need to find a slip road to take them out of trouble and preserve their top flight status.

They have three games to do that, but when you consider that starts with a visit to newly crowned champions Dundalk this Friday night, then realistically United have just two games left to get some badly needed points to clamour to safety.

Not a single United player performed anywhere near the level required last Friday night – the best Galway man on the pitch was the Limerick striker Vinny Faherty, who scored twice and could have had a couple more only for woeful finishing on his behalf.

Matters are so tight that things could very well come down to goal difference at the end of the season, so United have that at least to be thankful for on Friday night. That, but nothing else.

United were clearly set-up not to lose the game, but that was a very negative approach to a tie that, if they won, would have all but guaranteed they would have at least avoided automatic relegation. Instead, it looks like they will have take a minimum of four points from games away to Dundalk and Bray, and at home to St Patrick’s Athletic on the final day of the season, to save their season.

If they play again like they did on Friday night, then they will be in serious trouble. Woeful passing, brutal defending, slack marking, shocking movement – it was like they had met each other in the pub a couple of hours earlier and decided to head out to the nearest field for a kickabout.

They were lucky a week earlier to beat Sligo Rovers – Dunne admitted as much after the game – and the United manager conceded after Friday night’s defeat that his side got exactly what they deserved for a poor performance. It is up to him now, and his squad, to turn things around by getting game plans, team selection and performances bang on the money.

Conor Winn was United’s star man in the Connacht derby, but he almost handed Limerick the lead after just 40 seconds on Friday night. Stephen Walsh laid a ball back to the ’keeper to fong up the pitch but Winn sliced his clearance a couple of yards to his right.

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