United face daunting FAI Cup quarter-final trip to Tallaght

Keith Kelly

Galway United make the first of two trips in a week to the Tallaght Stadium this Friday night to take on Shamrock Rovers in the quarter finals of the FAI Cup (kick-off 8pm).

Undoubtedly the league meeting between the sides on Friday week is the more important of the two games as United continue their now annual scramble to avoid relegation, but given the fact United are 13 years without a major trophy (1997 League Cup), and have won the FAI Cup just once (1991), success-starved fans would love to make it all the way to the Aviva Stadium in November and watch Barry Ryan follow in the footsteps of Johnny Glynn and lift the cup.

Sean Connor is certainly of the former frame of mind, saying that if it came to a choice, he would rather ensure the club’s Premier Division survival, but that is not to suggest United won’t be looking for victory on Friday night.

“It is unusual to meet back-to-back in different competitions, and I find that when that happens, usually both teams get a result each form the games. If pushed, I would take our league survival as being more important, but there is a semi-final place in the cup at stake, so when you get this far in the competition, you want to keep progressing,” Connor told Tribune Sport.

United go into the game on the back of a hugely impressive display against Sligo Rovers on Monday night, when Sean Connor’s side came from two goals down to grab a point thanks to goals from Gary Curran and Karl Sheppard.

The result exorcised the memories of the horror show in Bray the previous Friday, when United’s five-game unbeaten run was brought to a shuddering halt by Bray Wanderers, who hit four goals without reply to record their first win over United in 10 attempts.

“It was a very positive result for us, to come from two goals down to get the draw. Yes there were unusual results elsewhere with Dundalk and UCD both winning, meaning we have slipped back into the bottom three, but we are only behind UCD on goal difference and have made up quite a gap on them in the table in the past few weeks.“We slipped up badly in Bray, but with the good run we were on, we were able to bounce back from that and get a result against Sligo, and at this stage of the season it is important to pick up points whenever you can.

“Obviously, for survival, I would prefer a win in the league game with Shamrock Rovers, but we go into every game looking to win it, and Friday won’t be any different. The games between us have been very tight this season, they only beat us 1-0 in Terryland twice, and even when we lost 2-0 up there, both their goals came form set pieces.“They are a big, strong physical side so we need to work on that aspect of our game, but all the pressure will be on them, there is huge expectation around the club, and that could work in our favour,” Connor said.

While United were battling to a draw in the Connacht derby, Shamrock Rovers were suffering a nightmare on the plastic pitch of Oriel Park, conceding four goals in the first-half to a Dundalk side that made it two wins on the bounce, having gone eight games without a victory during a horrible spell for Ian Foster’s side.

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