Tribesmen aiming for home win over Bohemians to ease relegation worries
GALWAY United will hope for a return to home comforts this Friday night when they host fellow strugglers Bohemians in Eamonn Deacy Park (7.45pm) looking for the win that would lift them out of the relegation places.
Shane Keegan’s side had climbed out of the bottom three following their last-gasp win over Finn Harps last Friday night; but a defeat to Shamrock Rovers on Monday, coupled with Drogheda United’s scoreless draw with Bray Wanderers the following night, has seen United slip back to 10th in a bizarrely congested bottom half of the table.
Just two points separate Bohs in 7th from Finn Harps in 12th, so United need to follow up on last Friday’s late win over Harps with another win against another side desperately trying to claw its way to safety, in order to progress their own hopes of top-flight survival.
At least Friday’s game is at home: the defeat to Shamrock Rovers extended both United’s miserable run against the Hoops, and their wretched form away from home. The Tribesmen have now lost 17 consecutive league games against Shamrock Rovers; while they have also now gone 17 games without an away win in the league, their last success on the road being the 2-1 win over Bray Wanderers on May 14 last year.
To be fair to United, they were missing Marc Ludden, David Cawley, Ronan Murray, and Vinny Faherty from the starting XI on Monday, and all four are expected to return this Friday, with Ludden the only doubt, an ankle injury picked up in the 1-1 draw with Cork City meaning he is rated as 60-40 to start.
Keegan was refreshingly honest this week when admitting that Cawley and Faherty were both rested on Monday night. They were both carrying slight knocks, and the United manager said he didn’t want to risk them aggravating an injury which would rule them out of the game with Bohs, a match he has prioritised over the meeting with Rovers.
“The league seems to have split into a top six and a bottom six, and for me, we have to win the games against the teams around us in the bottom half of the table. Picking up points against the sides in the top six is a bonus, but it is the wins against the teams around us that will see us stay up, so the game with Bohs is more important that the Rovers one in terms of fellas being available.
For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.