Play off spot confirmed as United's wretched run of form continues

Sporting Fingal 3Galway United 1

Daire Walsh

First-half goals from Alan Kirby and Colin Hawkins, and a fortunate second-half strike from full-back Lorcan Fitzgerald were enough to confirm Galway United’s position in the end-of-season relegation tie, despite a game performance against Sporting Fingal in the Morton Stadium last Friday evening.

United started the game with a 4-4-1-1 formation, with Derek O’Brien playing just behind lone striker Karl Sheppard, while Sporting played a 4-4-2 combo, which has been something of a change from their usual 4-3-3 set-up.

Going into the game, there was an outside chance that United could still finish ahead of UCD, thus avoiding the relegation play-off, and they really needed a good start to this tie if they were to have any chance of doing so.

Unfortunately, the opposite turned out to be the case, as it took Liam Buckley’s side only three minutes to open their lead as a long clearance by Ger O’Brien was expertly controlled by Ronan Finn on the right-wing, who pulled back for the onrushing Kirby to slot coolly past the helpless Darragh Geraghty in the United.

This was not the beginning that Sean Connor would have been hoping for, and it got worse for the Tribesmen just eight minutes later when towering Fingal centre-half Colin Hawkins rose highest to head home from an inswinging Conan Byrne corner on the right.

This left United with an absolute mountain to climb and, even at this early stage, it was looking like this game could turn into a rout if United didn’t start gathering some possession around midfield.To be fair to United, they did manage to do this, and though it took them a long while to really threaten Brendan Clarke's goal, they were at least becoming more competitive in the midfield sector.

They did have one half-chance after 28 minutes, when Stephen Walsh crossed after some excellent work on the left-hand side and, following some rather shaky defensive play by Sporting, the ball nearly fell to the feet of Sheppard, but the home team managed to clear the danger.

For more, read this week's Connacht Sentinel.