New-look Galway United kick off campaign with home tie against Drogheda
A new season, a new manager, and a new-look squad that is chomping at the bit to get the campaign underway – Galway United’s players don’t have long more to wait, as they host Drogheda United in Eamonn Deacy Park this Friday (7.45pm) as the 2017 League of Ireland season gets underway.
New United manager, Shane Keegan, has brought an infectious enthusiasm to the club, and if that manifests itself in his side’s displays, then the Tribesmen will make a mockery of the pundits who have tipped them as one of the three sides who will be relegated at the end of the season.
They have a chance to throw down an immediate marker on Friday, and Keegan expects his side to do just that. While it is a bit silly to be talking about ‘relegation six-pointers’ before a ball has even been kicked, it is possible to identify key games in the season, and the first one of those for United is the visit of Drogheda.
“Oh absolutely, there’s no point me sitting here saying anything different. We have Drogheda at home, and our third game is away to Finn Harps and you are absolutely correct to say they are games we have to target for to get three points.
“But at the same time, you can be sure Drogheda and Harps have looked at the fixtures, have seen an early game against United, and have targeted that for three points as well. With the change to the league structure coming in next year, with three teams going down and only one getting promoted, everyone is under huge pressure from the very start, we just have to respond well to that pressure,” he said.
United can’t afford to carry their form from the latter half of 2016 into this new campaign. They won just two of their final 13 games in 2016, a run which cost Tommy Dunne his job, and in his programme notes for Friday night’s game, new club captain, Colm Horgan, writes about how the side suffered from a lack of confidence as a solid start to the season (10 points from their first five games) quickly evaporated.
The issue is, the majority of last season’s squad are back on board for this year – Ryan Connolly, Stephen Walsh, Enda Curran, and Armin Aganovic are the main absentees – so what happens if confidence slumps again this season?
The answer could be in the new players brought in by Keegan, who appears to have made some very astute signings. The loss of Connolly, last year’s captain, had the potential to have been a major blow, but instead, United look to be stronger in the midfield/number 10 area thanks to the addition of Gavan Holohan and David Cawley.
For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.