Galway United left Belfield on Friday night with a share of the spoils after Danny Furlong’s early strike was cancelled out by a Josh Collins header.
In a contest that opened up in the closing stages, the two goals came in the first half as Shane Keegan’s men maintained their unbeaten start to the season.
Following a move down the right flank on 22 minutes, Stephen Kenny’s cross found Furlong who struck his fourth Galway United goal in two games.
But nine minutes later, Collins was on hand to head home the equaliser as UCD also moved level on four points with their opponents.
The hosts enjoyed the best of the early chances as Daire O’Connor twice forces Tadhg Ryan into saves while Georgie Kelly was off target on eight minutes. Galway’s best opportunity came in the 19th minute when a Kenny cross forced UCD keeper Conor Kearns into a touch.
Furlong’s goal put Galway ahead but they only enjoyed the advantage for nine minutes. Kelly forced Ryan into another stop on 25 minutes but the Galway goalie couldn’t do anything about Collins’ header just past the half hour mark as UCD made it 1-1.
The visitors finished the half strongly. Eoin McCormack turned inside only for his shot to be saved by Kearns. And Gary Shanahan broke down the middle picking out Furlong who was also denied.
Ryan Connolly had a corner cleared three minutes after the restart before UCD started to get back into proceedings. Though they nearly got an own goal as defender Maxim Kouogun tested Kearns’ reflexes.
O’Connor was just over with a powerful effort on 55 minutes before Jason McClelland brought another save out of Ryan.
In reply, Furlong and Kenny set up McCormack whose header lacked the necessary power; Furlong’s shot across goal on 73 minutes went just wide; Alan Murphy made his return to action as a 83th minute substitute but blazed over as did Carlton Ubaezunou in injury time.
Galway will take heart from finishing both halves strongly but they did have chances to win. That being said, a point in Belfield will be considered a good acquisition as the season develops.
UCD 1 (Collins 31′)
Galway United 1 (Furlong 22′)
Galway United: Tadhg Ryan; Gary Shanahan, Maurice Nugent, Stephen Walsh, Marc Ludden; Stephen Kenny, Conor Barry, Eoin McCormack, Ryan Connolly, Ronan Manning; Danny Furlong. Subs used: Carlton Ubaezuonu for Manning (69 mins), Alex Byrne for Kenny (69 mins), Alan Murphy for Barry (83 mins).
UCD: Conor Kearns; Dan Tobin, Maxi Kouogun, Josh Collins, Liam Scales; Greg Sloggett, Gary O’Neill, Timmy Molloy; Daire O’Connor, Jason McClelland, Georgie Kelly. Subs used: Paul Doyle for Molloy (63 mins), Ben Hanrahan for Kelly (87 mins).
| Pos | Club | Pl | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 4 | |
| 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 4 | |
| 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | |
| 5 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 | |
| 6 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
| 7 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | -1 | 1 | |
| 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 9 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | -2 | 0 | |
| 10 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 4 | -3 | 0 |
Galway United welcome Cabinteely in their next Airtricity League First Division game on Friday, March 16th. Kick-off in Eamonn Deacy Park is 7.45pm.
FULL-TIME | Danny Furlong's fourth goal in two games put United ahead in the first half before Josh Collins' equaliser sent the teams in level at the break and that was how it finished at the UCD Bowl #GUFC pic.twitter.com/RoQA8kPwHZ
— Galway United (@GalwayUnitedFC) March 9, 2018
