There was plenty to take from a fantastically fought Connacht Derby last Friday night. Unfortunately, the most tangible impact of a fantastic game of football was that the wait for European football in Galway will now go on for at least 35 years.
However, those lucky enough to have been in a packed Eamonn Deacy Park for the 2-2 draw, will recognise that the team and the club have come a significant way. There is also an optimism for the future that has been rare in a generation.
United’s assistant manager Ollie Horgan talks plainly and passionately after each game. His post-match comments were coloured by disappointment, but realism.
Horgan lamented a missed opportunity: “It’s the ambition that the group have. It’s not really driven by us. Yes, we have ambition ourselves and it’s the reason that some of us have come back to Galway. But this league isn’t getting easier. If you’re talking about next year, Bohs aren’t going to be down where they are, not that they’re that far behind anyone.
“You see what Pat’s have put together and where they are now. I think people expect too much too soon. I remember watching Bray play in a First Division game here. Because Finn Harps were playing Bray the following week. There were 350 people at the game. Maybe there was 400.
“There was 4,300 here tonight. The atmosphere was fabulous with the Sligo crowd and our own crowd. That’s what you want. That’s we are here for. I don’t mean that looking for compliments or pats on the back. I think that the majority of people realise where we have come from and how difficult it will be to maintain it or better it.
“There’s always going to be people that prefer maybe when you get beaten. I had it up the road [at Finn Harps] for years. It was incredible. They probably get more of a kick out of not playing well and losing than they do out of winning.
“We are all here. I’m Galway. All of the lads, while not all of them are from Galway, they wear their hearts on their sleeves. Okay, we were very disappointed conceding a late goal against Dundalk. We’re disappointed with the concession of the second goal there tonight which set us back. But we came back from them.
“We’ve fallen short, but we’ve set targets in the last few weeks that wouldn’t have been there at the start of the year, of fighting for Europe in the second last game of the season. But it doesn’t get any easier. I’ve been there and John has been there. We need to keep turning over and getting people in here but it’s easier said than done.
“The whole event of tonight, the performance and the atmosphere, I just thought that’s what it’s about. That to me is what Galway, of old, were about.”
The pride has undoubtedly been restored and Galway United are central to the city and county’s sporting landscape again. The league itself is going mainstream.
A final trip to Dalymount tomorrow night will be instructive. Despite there being relatively little on the line, on a night where the league will be decided in Derry and Tallaght, there will be a big crowd which underlines the league’s progress.
United will be keen to secure a top half finish. There may also be a chance to give a couple of youngsters a chance at the storied ground.
The one thing that can be expected, even in a supposed dead rubber, is that the professionalism that has been instilled in the club and the group to be evident. It has been the hallmark of Caulfield’s tenure. It hasn’t always been perfect or pretty, but it has allowed Galway fans to dream again. There is little more beautiful than that.
