Victory in defeat for Utd

Date Published: {J}

CIARAN TIERNEY

It is not often that a team which loses its first game of the season by three goals has cause for celebration but, given what has gone on at Galway United over the past number of months, there was a genuine ‘feel good’ factor at Terryland Park on Friday night.

Granted, St. Patrick’s Athletic took the Premier Division points on a 3-0 scoreline. But the fact that a club which almost folded during the close season even managed to field a team ensured this was a memorable night for Galway soccer.

Lapsed fans were clearly galvanised after seeing United come back from the brink, avoiding relegation following a successful licensing appeal just two weeks earlier. A healthy crowd of over 1,500, bigger than any ‘gate’ in 2010, turned up to cheer on a side which had only been cobbled together by United manager Sean Connor in a matter of days.

Some of the players had never even met each other, never mind trained together, before going out onto the pitch at Terryland to face a Dublin side who were expected to annihilate the new-look locals. In holding St. Pat’s scoreless until half-time, a lot of pride was restored to the club.

United is now run by the club’s own supporters – a bit like Barcelona, but on a miniscule budget – and it was encouraging to see former fans return to Terryland to support a side who came perilously close to extinction over the close season.

“We’ve had tremendous goodwill from the people of the city and county and we sold 80 season tickets in a few hours before kick-off,” said new club secretary Ronan Coleman. “Some of our supporters said that the whole painful process was good for the club, as it galvanised them and inspired them to come back to Terryland.

“There were a lot of lapsed supporters back at Terryland and the crowd was even bigger than for the play-off against Bray at the end of last season. It was great to see old friends. We had gone four months without a match and people were delighted to come back.”

Coleman said that Connor had “worked miracles” to put a team together in the short period since the club had its Premier Division licence restored. For many fans, it would have been unthinkable to see United go down two divisions.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Sentinel.