A splendid goal from Conor Barry and an insurance strike from Maurice Nugent ensured Galway United climbed from the bottom of the SSE Aitricity League first division when defeating Wexford FC 2-0 at Eamonn Deacy Park on Friday.
With plenty of positives to take from the win over Wexford, United's next game is on May 17 at the Dyke Road venue against Longford Town.
Tight intially, United improved following Barry's delightful opener, and while Wexford also squandered opportunities, Nugent sealed the deal in the closing stages.
Manager Alan Murphy remains encouraged by United's improvement in recent weeks, with two triumphs and clean sheets registered in three weeks since the return from injury of influential goalkeeper Kevin Horgan.
“It’s not a table thing at the moment," he says. "I don’t say that flippantly, but I’m not looking at the table. I’m looking at the performance and I’m looking at us trying to beat Wexford at home and trying to get some confidence back, which we’ve done.
“We’ll start looking at tables in five or six games time when we have a few more clean sheets and a few more goals scored and that’s when we’ll start looking."
Murphy says his group of players do not need the pressure of looking at tables.
"We’re in initial stages of development as a group. Look at the pride and look at the players playing for each other and for the jersey.”
The application and attitude of the United players has been evident throughout a tough spell when six one-goal losses were suffered, but Murphy is content with how his team coped.
“We were a bit nervous at times, the first 15 or 20 minutes we started very slowly, which is probably different to the way we started most games. We’ve probably been the best side in most games and suffered a sucker punch getting a goal against us.
“Obviously I’m delighted with the home win. It’s been coming a while with different performances, and half performances, and some poor performances in the middle of games."
Murphy is hopeful United can continue to develop for the remainder of the campaign.
“I think it’s very evident to see those players are hugely ambitious and hungry and want to do well. I think they’re playing for me, but they’re playing for that pride and a huge togetherness, and I take great pride in that from where we were last season to where we are after this win.
" I’ll go back to what I say every week, it’s small steps and it’s one thing at a time. We’ll fix one thing and we’ll look at something else. We fixed the scenario that we weren’t creating any chances, now we need to fix it so that we can put those chances in the back of the net. I think that will come. It’s confidence.
"I’ve been around this game 20 years and I know that if someone is low on confidence, it’s not easy to put the ball in the back of the net at times. That will help, it’ll help the fact that we’ve got different players on the pitch too.”
