Galway United gave themselves a massive shot in the arm on Friday (11th May) when they beat table toppers UCD in the SSE Airtricity League First Division.
Goals from Eoin McCormack and Ryan Connolly gave the Tribesmen a 2-0 victory in Eamonn Deacy Park and moved to third place in the table.
They now only trail the students by five points with a game in hand. Should they defeat Cobh Ramblers in their re-fixtured tie on the June Bank Holiday weekend (4th June), they could be within two points of automatic promotion.
“It couldn’t come against a better team really,” said manager Shane Keegan to Galway Bay FM’s Mike Rafferty afterwards. “They are a fantastic team. There’s no doubt about it. They showed plenty of glimpses of it tonight again in fairness to them. But yeah, it’s the first time we’ve gone 90 minutes at it.
Galway United v UCD Reaction https://t.co/VCxQSTYLmh
— Galway Bay FM Sport (@gbfmsports) May 12, 2018
“I suppose there was a 15-minute period where we had to soak up a bit of pressure in the second half. But it is the definitely the first time we’ve gone 90 minutes at a top, top level. We needed it! It was a really, really important game.
“Individually over the course of the week, you were challenging every single player as an individual to try and give you their peak performance of the year.
“And I couldn’t praise them enough in terms of how they carried out the instructions to the letter of the law. They really, really did! I think (we had) some superb individual performances.”
Galway United’s next game in the SSE Airtricity League is on Sunday, 20th May. Kick-off at Stradbrook is 3pm.
Pos | Club | Pl | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | PTS |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | U.C.D. | 12 | 8 | 2 | 2 | 28 | 13 | 15 | 26 |
2 | Drogheda United | 11 | 6 | 3 | 2 | 31 | 12 | 19 | 21 |
3 | Galway United | 11 | 6 | 3 | 2 | 22 | 9 | 13 | 21 |
4 | Finn Harps | 11 | 6 | 3 | 2 | 14 | 9 | 5 | 21 |
5 | Shelbourne | 11 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 18 | 9 | 9 | 19 |
6 | Longford Town | 11 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 20 | 11 | 9 | 18 |
7 | Cabinteely | 11 | 4 | 0 | 7 | 10 | 16 | -6 | 12 |
8 | Cobh Ramblers | 11 | 3 | 2 | 6 | 10 | 18 | -8 | 11 |
9 | Wexford FC | 12 | 2 | 1 | 9 | 13 | 32 | -19 | 7 |
10 | Athlone Town | 11 | 0 | 1 | 10 | 6 | 43 | -37 | 1 |