In-form Galway United let Cork City off the hook

Cork City 2

A cracking game, a decent result, but a desperately disappointing crowd – it appears that Galway’s sporting roads are only wide enough to accommodate one bandwagon at a time, and the lads over at the Sportsground have a waiting list for boarding.

Sport can be a dispiriting endeavour at the best of times, but when you go into a home game on the back of three successive home wins, all achieved without conceding a goal, and the visiting side are one of the title favourites, you’d be entitled to expect more of a crowd than the 1,557 who clicked their way through the turnstiles in Eamonn Deacy Park on Friday night.

Maybe if United offered craft beer and played in Birkenstock sandals and tweed jerseys, then the event-lovers around the city and county might have their interest piqued enough to head up the Dyke Road . . . but there is no point playing the blame game, especially with United playing such a beautiful game on the pitch.

While all the headlines around the league at the weekend were taken by the cerebrally challenged cretins who invaded the Dalymount Park pitch during the Dublin derby between Bohs and Rovers, events on the pitch 135 miles west of Phibsboro served up a real treat.

If back at the start of the season you had said to any United fan that they would leave Eamonn Deacy Park on April 15 disappointed at only getting a draw against a side that finished as league runners-up in the previous two seasons, your sanity would have been questioned, but that was the case last Friday night.

A draw was probably a fair result, though United will have regrets at twice letting their visitors back into the game, as well as missing a couple of glorious chances to make it a record-equalling four successive home wins at the start of a season.

They got off to the best possible start when taking the lead in the 5th minute. Ryan Connolly drilled in a corner from the left which was cleared back to him, and the United captain took a touch before whipping in a more lofted cross which Vinny Faherty back-headed across Mark McNulty and inside the far post for his fifth goal of the season, and the fourth home game in a row in which he found the net.

United were the better side, but City equalised in the 18th minute with a goal completely against the run of play. Ruairi Keating’s shot was blocked on the edge of the box, and the ball fell for Gary Buckley, who slid the ball wide for the excellent Stephen Dooley.

Full coverage in this week's Connacht Tribune.