Ten-man Galway FC come from behind to secure battling point

Galway FC 1

A good result given the circumstances, but a poor one in a wider context as Galway FC have now fallen nine points behind early pacesetters Shelbourne with a third of the SSE Airtricity League First Division season gone.

With Shels beating Waterford United on Friday night, Galway FC travelled to Tallaght Stadium on Sunday afternoon needing to win to stay in touch with Johnny McDonnell’s side, but in the end they had to settle for a draw, having conceded a goal against the run of play in the 31st minute, and then being reduced to 10 men two minutes later.

Stephen Walsh was the man to see red, a stupid dismissal after getting embroiled in a tussle for the ball with Sean O’Connor after referee Shane Dunphy had awarded the visitors a free-kick just inside the Shamrock Rovers half.

In the ruck for the ball, Walsh swung an elbow, and when Dunphy flashed the red, there was no argument from the Galway FC striker nor any of his team-mates as he headed for the tunnel – being a straight red card, he faces a minimum two game ban, ruling him out of the games with Finn Harps and Cobh Ramblers.

It put the hat on a frustrating cameo from the striker, who should have put the visitors ahead five minutes earlier only to see his shot cleared off the line. He showed great awareness to chase down an under-hit backpass from Nathan Brown, just beating Rovers’ ’keeper Craig Hyland to the ball.

Walsh could have gone down, but to his credit he kept his feet, rounded the ’keeper and fired towards the empty net, but his shot lacked power and David O’Connor was able to track back and hook the ball off the line.

In fact, it was a first-half to forget for the visitors – they had a goal disallowed; then fell behind to a Sean O’Connor strike just past the half-hour mark; and after Walsh was sent off, Jason Molloy was helped off a minute before the break with a shoulder injury – he left the ground with his arm in a sling, and is due to go for an x-ray to ascertain the extent of the damage.

“We didn’t start that well, we looked a bit sloppy early on and they had good possession, but without really causing us much problems, and then we conceded a bad goal. You have good shape in your team and next thing one hoof up the pitch causes you a nightmare, you’ve got to be able to deal with it and we didn’t,” Galway FC manager Tommy Dunne said after the game.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Sentinel.