Things are going from bad to worse as United crash again
Cork City 1
Galway United 0
IF it wasn’t a crisis before Friday night, surely it is now after Galway United fell to a fifth league defeat in six games when losing to basement side Cork City.
It was only a third league win of the season for the Leesiders, who scored with their only shot on target in the game, as United’s woeful run of form continues, and with runaway league leaders Shamrock Rovers up next on Sunday, things could get a lot uglier in the short term.
The one blessing is that City are so far adrift at the foot of the table, they are still odds-on for automatic relegation at the end of the season, but United now face a very real prospect of ending up in the play-off spot as they simply can’t buy a bit of luck at the minute.
When the starting XI was announced at 6.30pm on Friday, it showed six changes from the side which had been turned over so meekly against Waterford a week earlier. When the game started and United’s shape became clear, it saw them switch to the 4-2-3-1 formation that worked so well last year.
But despite all that, and despite playing a side with just two wins all season, a side shorn of a number of first-team players due to injury, a side seemingly intent on internal bickering and discontent raining down on them from the terraces, United still managed to lose.
The dominated both territory and possession – for the last 15 minutes or so, they were as good as playing with just a two-man defensive line – but they just couldn’t carve out any clear-cut chances as Josh Fitzpatrick’s 25-yard screamer in the 5th minute was enough to claim the three points.
“We were warning them all week they [Cork] are a wounded animal. We changed things and we felt it was a good opportunity to get at them, but, you know, a lot of our play in the first-half wasn’t good.
“Obviously, we were chasing the game after five minutes, which is so frustrating. He [Fitzpatrick] cuts in – all week, we watched and we spoke about it, [the need to] go tight, we knew exactly what they’re going to do, he takes a shot from 20 yards. Should we save it? I don’t know, we will have to view it back.
“The second-half it was like we were just camped in their half, but once or twice we didn’t hit the target in good positions and that’s frustrating. To be fair to Cork, they defended for their lives and we are bang in the middle of a relegation run, I have been saying this for a number of weeks, a number of our players who are normally really good for us haven’t been playing well for a while, which is disappointing,” he said.
Brendan Clarke returned between the sticks on Friday for his first appearance since the 1-0 defeat at home to Sligo Rovers in mid-May; while Jimmy Keohane was making his first start since April, though he did appear off the bench in that Waterford loss a week earlier.
Pictured: Galway United's Stephen Walsh who was denied by a superb save from Cork City goalkeeper Conor Brann in Friday's Premier Division tie at Turners Cross.