“We will exceed 40 at this stage,” says Eamonn Deacy Park stadium manager Noel Connolly about the volume of matches taking place at the venue in May.
It is a hectic spell for Connolly and his ground staff, who are relishing the challenges that exist. “We have an extremely high number of games going ahead in May, by far the most we have ever had,” he adds. “All of the local finals are due in, we have a few Galway WFC and Galway United games thrown in with that too.”
Ultimately it means that June will be a valuable spell for pitch maintenance work to be carried out according to Connolly. “We will have nearly the whole month of June to recover the pitch during the League of Ireland summer break,” Connolly explains.
“We have three weeks there where I will get most of our work done to repair the pitch, to have it back in good order after the break in the League of Ireland. Galway United are back on June 24 so we have almost 24 days to get work done.”
Juvenile and junior players are being afforded an opportunity to feature in fixtures at the home of Galway football, which is important.
“Every one from U8s up want to play their finals at Eamonn Deacy Park, it is a big day out for most clubs, they look forward to it, they aim to get there to finish the season with a cup final at Eamonn Deacy Park,” Connolly acknowledges.
“We try to make it as big a day as possible - we have walk on music at the stadium, we get as many games in there as we can.
“This year with the number of extra leagues and the huge growth in soccer - four or five years ago we had in the region of 20 or 25 cup finals - now we are hitting more than 40. It shows the huge growth, particularly on the girls' side too.
“We have more girls' finals than ever, it is great to see and shows the tremendous work being done by the Galway FA promoting the game locally.”
**Listen to the full interview with Eamonn Deacy Park stadium manager Noel Connolly on this week’s ‘Cian on Sport’ podcast available on Soundcloud, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.
