Footballers bidding to end poor league record against Laois at O’Moore Park
THE expectations might be modest enough in terms of the season ahead but Galway footballers will be desperately trying to reverse the trend of recent years by beating Laois in the first round of the National League (Div. 2) at O’Moore Park, Portlaoise on Sunday (2pm).
Galway have a long injury list in the build-up to this league tie with players like Finian Hanley, Gareth Bradshaw, Gary Sice, Cathal Sweeney, Patrick Sweeney, Danny Cummins and Paul Varley all on the casualty list.
Johnny Duane of St. James’ and Corofin’s Michael Lundy are also out of the frame for this season as they embark on a work and football sojourn in the United States . . . so the hand to play from next Sunday has been well reduced.
In its own modest way, Galway’s FBD win over Roscommon at Tuam Stadium on Sunday last, will have given their morale a timely boost in the run-up to the January start of the National League – it’s a little confidence injection that they badly needed.
The big step-up though is on Sunday and Galway supporters will have painful memories of recent league clashes with Laois, encounters that have been laden with humiliation.
Last March, after a strong start in Tuam Stadium, Galway conceded two pretty awful goals before going down to Laois on a 2-10 to 0-10 scoreline.
In 2014, Galway took a quite shocking pasting in Portlaoise, losing out by 1-20 to 0-8 while it was little better the previous year at the same venue when the home side came out on top with eight points to spare – 1-15 to 0-10.
Laois are no bad side – but they’re light years away from the ‘big guns’ – and Galway should be doing better against them. The travelling fans will be hoping on Sunday that Kevin Walsh’s side will be sufficiently motivated by the results sequence of recent years to extract a result from a county now managed by Mick Lillis.
Last year, Laois lost out to Antrim in the qualifiers, a defeat that prompted the resignation of former Galway manager Tomás Ó Fatharta from the helm of affairs at O’Moore county.
Lillis guided Portlaoise to six county titles and they were chugging along reasonably well in the O’Byrne Cup until the concession of two late goals against Meath, scores that denied them a semi-final place in that competition.
John O’Loughlin at midfield and Donie Kingston on the ‘40’ have been their ‘big’ early season players and they will have earmarked this clash with Galway as a ‘must win’ tie. The Midlanders, however, will be missing the influential Brendan Quigley who is serving a suspension carried over from last year’s championship.
For more, read this week's Galway City Tribune.