Galway FC take two-goal lead into second leg of play-off

Shelbourne 0

Galway FC manager Tommy Dunne is warning against any kind of complacency as his side head to Tolka Park this Friday night with a two-goal cushion in the First Division promotion play-off.

Goals in either half from Ryan Connolly – a penalty – and Gary Shanahan capped a season’s-best performance by the home side in atrocious conditions in Eamonn Deacy Park last Friday night, but it was a scoreline which does scant justice to the performance of Dunne’s side.

They completely dominated the opening 45 minutes – Shelbourne’s first shot on the Galway goal came in first-half injury-time – and while the Tribesmen were a little slow out of the blocks in the second-half, once they found their groove, they were again almost unplayable.

However, their season-long failure of not capitalising on their chances meant they were sweating on a single goal lead, given to them from the spot by Connolly in the 18th minute, until Shanahan gave a more realistic look to the scoreline five minutes from the end to put them firmly in the driving seat heading into the second-leg this Friday night.

“I think looking back at the game, 2-0 probably doesn’t flatter us given the possession and chances we had, and possibly we could have had 1 or 2 more, although to be fair to Shels, they had 1 or 2 chances as well.

“That said, the performance was good and I thought we were the stronger team – but we were at home, so you’d expect that. It’s only half-time, we have to go to Tolka and they’ll be coming after us, you can be sure about that.

“In football, people always say 2-0 is the worst lead you can have but in saying that I’d rather take a 2-0 to Tolka than a 0-0. We’ve just got to go up there and be positive, play our normal game and try to win the match – we can’t afford to say we’ll sit back and hold what we have, that’s just asking for trouble,” he said.

Dunne is right to sound a tone of caution – Galway United fans only have to cast their minds back to the promotion play-off final of 2003, when they defeated Drogheda United 2-0 in the first leg in Terryland Park, but Drogheda won the second leg 3-0 after extra time to break Galway hearts.

It was almost as if the players had that in the back of their minds on Friday, and decided to get the tie done and dusted after just 90 minutes, such was their dominance in the first half in particular. Their formation was a first this season, with Alex Byrne and Paul Sinnott sitting in front of the back four; while Ryan Connolly was in a more advanced role and flanked by Gary Shanahan and Ryan Manning, with that trio providing the support for Jake Keegan up front.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Sentinel.