Big crowd on cards as Utd swing back into league action

Keith Kelly

GALWAY United are expecting their biggest crowd for a number of years in Terryland Park on Friday night when they host St Patrick’s Athletic in their opening game of the 2011 Premier Division campaign (kick-off 7.45pm).

Huge numbers of messages of goodwill have been pouring into the club since the day-to-day running was taken over by supporters, and almost 500 season tickets have been sold for a season which is low on expectation but high in exhilaration over the fact the club is in the top flight, as it came perilously close to going out of business when it was refused a Premier Division licence.

An appeal against that decision was successful, but it left United with just two weeks to properly prepare for the new season, and as a result manager Sean Connor is still trying to formalise a squad less than 48 hours before the first game.

The club is still waiting for international clearance for former UCD winger Karl Moore, and English striker Joseph Yoffe. Both spent time on the books of Spanish side Crevillante, but United and the FAI have been having difficulty making contact with the club, or with securing the necessary clearance from the Spanish FA.

A goalkeeper was due to link up with the club on Wednesday, but as Ronan Coleman – the secretary of the new fan-run management committee at United – explained, time is running out to register players, and it is touch-and-go if those three named above will be involved on Friday night.

“The manager is hopeful of bringing in new players, but it is getting tight at this stage with regards to registering players. Hopefully both Karl and Joseph will get their clearance in time for Friday night, we are certainly working as hard and as fast as we can to ensure that,” he said.

The office at Terryland Park is being manned by volunteers and has been very busy all week with season ticket enquiries and with people ringing with messages of goodwill.

“We are seeing a lot of contact at the office, and we are hopeful of getting a big crowd on Friday night. I think we are offering very good value with the reduction in price in both the season ticket and adult admission prices, and hopefully the public will respond and turn out in large numbers.

“We are seeing a lot of supporters coming back to the club, and that will be very important this season – there are a lot of people who used to go to Galway United matches but haven’t been to Terryland Park in a while, and we are hoping they come back this season, but so far, I have to say the support of the public has been excellent,” he said.

Coleman said it has been an “intense” few weeks since the supporters took over the running of the club, but the pressure is not just been felt on the administration side of things, as Connor has been forced to build a squad with one of the lowest budgets of both divisions.

Only a few players from last season have remained on at the club with one, Paul Sinnott, named as captain for the year. Other familiar faces in the dressing room will include Stephen Walsh and Gary Curran, as well as Alan Murphy, who missed the whole of last season through injury.

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