United blunders prove costly against Bohs
Date Published: 09-Jun-2010
Bohemians 2
Keith Kelly at
Terryland Park
A DEFENSIVE howler for the second successive home game cost Galway United a badly needed win after they were held to a draw by 10-man Bohemians on Tuesday night.
United twice took the lead against the defending champions, only for poor defensive work to undermine their efforts on both occasions, and while most United fans would gladly have accepted a point before the game, the dominant feeling after the full-time whistle was that United had let it slip once again.
Sean Connor’s side have now played every team at home this season, but have just two wins – against Bray and Drogheda – to show for their efforts, and unless their home form improves, they will struggle to climb out of the bottom three.
Connor has spoken of his desire to strengthen his squad during the July transfer window and push for a top-half finish in the table, but that is not going to happen if United continue to attract paltry attendances.Just 774 punters turned up on Tuesday night, including season ticket holders, while a mere 350 or so paid through the gate for the FAI Cup clash with Malahide United on Friday night, and if attendances don’t dramatically improve, not only will Connor not be able to strengthen the squad, he might not have a squad to strengthen next season as running the club on such figures will soon become unsustainable.
What is also unsustainable is United’s over-reliance on the back-pass to goalkeeper Barry Ryan, which for the second home game in succession cost the home side all three points and it is now six games without a win in the league for United.
Ryan was at fault against UCD a couple of weeks ago, losing his footing when trying to control a back-pass and then dithering to allow Chris Mulhall nip in and grab what proved to be an equaliser, and the ‘keeper was partly at fault for both goals on Tuesday night.
He was one of the main reasons United stayed up last season, producing a string of fine saves and performances to be rightly regarded as one of the top three ‘keepers in the league, but he has been prone to poor decision making this season.
He stayed on his line as Ken Oman nodded down Killian Brennan’s free-kick for Paddy Madden to blast the first equaliser to the net on Tuesday night, and then fired an attempted clearance off the legs of the Bohs striker five minutes later to gift the visitors a second equaliser after Tom King had restored United’s lead.
However the main talking point on the night was the performance of referee Anthony Buttimer, who gave a display that once again calls into question the quality of referees in the league. The Cork official harshly sent of Bohs defender Brian Shelley and wrongly awarded United a penalty; he then bottled it by failing to send off Brennan who tangled twice with Bobby Ryan in the space of 90 seconds as well as giving a succession of poor decisions in a performance which should go punished but this being the League of Ireland, probably won’t – no other referee has taken change of more games than Buttimer (11) this season.
The first moment of controversy came in the 18th minute when Karl Sheppard got in behind Brian Shelley to latch onto Rhys Meynell’s ball over the top. The players tangled outside the box before Sheppard went down inside the penalty area, and when Buttimer blew his free, many in the stand thought he was about to book the United player for diving.
Instead he awarded United a penalty and showed Shelley a straight red card for being the last defender, and Stephen O’Donnell showed great coolness to chip the penalty down the centre of the goal as Barry Murphy dived to his left.