Tribesmen look to extend unbeaten start but could do with just a second win
Are you the kind of person who regards a glass containing exactly half the volume it can hold as half-full, or are you of the half-empty school of thought?
Does that carry over to other parts of your life? Sport, for example, and Galway United’s start to the season in particular, where do you stand on that?
An unbeaten start to the season has to be a good thing, right? Especially as it is one of only two unbeaten records left in a league that is just five games in.
But on the other hand, four of those five games have ended in a draw, and the defensive solidity of the past two seasons has been missing somewhat so far in 2025, with United having conceded in all five games to date.
As Ollie Horgan himself admitted after the draw with Derry City last Friday, United would be better off with two wins and two defeats from the four games they drew, while there has to be some concern at the fact that the Tribesmen have yet to keep a clean sheet five games into the season.
Considering the stats of the last two seasons, United’s defensive record this season can be chalked down as somewhat ‘ordinary’: 20 clean sheets on their way to the First Division title in 2023, and 16 last season in their first top-flight campaign since 2017. Zippity so far in 2025.
There is some suggestion that a change in system this year has contributed to that, with the side playing with three centre-backs and two wing-backs, as opposed to the flat back four of the 2024 campaign.
However, when you add in the final five games of last season, United have conceded at least once in each of their last 10 league games, half of which were under the ‘old’ formation, and half under the new-look set-up.
And so on to this Friday night, when United welcome Waterford FC to Eamonn Deacy Park (7.45pm). The visitors have already lost twice this season, yet they sit two places and two points above United in the table and so are better placed than United, despite having a worse record than their hosts on Friday night (hat-tip to Horgan on his point above).
United have been the dominant side in meetings between the two over the last two seasons, with six wins and two draws from their last eight games. They go into Friday with that unbeaten run, while Waterford head for the Dyke Road on the back of a 3-0 defeat at home to Bohemians last weekend.
Pictured: Jimmy Keohane could be back in the starting XI for Galway United's game at home to Waterford on Friday. Photo: Joe O'Shaughnessy.