United’s youngsters start to gel

United’s youngsters start to gel There is no shortage of tough games in this year’s Airtricity League, but Galway United will head for Tallaght Stadium tomorrow night heartened following an encouraging week. Four points from two games in which Galway were forced to field depleted teams ensures Sean Connor’s improving outfit will be hoping to disturb Shamrock Rovers in the capital. Despite playing without a recognised goalkeeper against Bray Wanderers, Galway won, and they decorated the success with a clean sheet. Then on Tuesday a draw was eked out in a tense Connacht derby with Sligo Rovers even though Galway were decimated by injuries and illness. Unsurprisingly Sean Connor cut a content figure after the two impressive results. "I am delighted with the point considering Bobby Ryan, Stephen O'Donnell, Ciaran Foley, and Derek O'Brien were injured. Anto Flood pulled out with a bad stomach bug before the game. My whole starting midfield and a striker were gone so it was tremendous. “ I thought Friday night's result was good, but this is even better. I made the point to the players that I felt we were conceding silly goals because I always feel we have goals in us when we have got the front two on. If you think about the games we have lost they have usually been by the odd goal. Once we stopped conceding silly goals we will start picking up more points. "Sometimes I am very critical of them, and sometimes I need to be reminded that it is only the 12th game they have played together as team. So they are all learning about each other, and they are learning about me as well. “I said it after the Bray game, the future of the football club is in good hands with that bunch of players. My full backs are young, two of the midfielders are under 21, the front two were under 21 so it was a tremendous effort.” Despite a restricted budget Connor has attracted decent footballers to the west, and insists that the club can improve further in the coming months. "There is a bit of a buzz here now, and there is a team spirit. Galway is a nice place to live and a nice place to work. We are all ambitious, maybe if we stick together things will happen. When I came here I signed a three year contract, and I feel that at Sligo I probably left a year too early, and maybe at Bohs I never got the chance to finish the work that I started. I certainly didn't get the chance to finish the work that I started at Dundalk so there is an opportunity here to build a team and a squad. “ It will be a young team because finances are always going to be tight. We are not going to be able to sign the big, expensive players, but we can build the young ones. The good ones will develop, and move on, we are just going to have to try to replace them. " There is a willingness there to deal with adversity. Rhys Meynell was fantastic in goal when he went in there, the others were great too. I was delighted that Barry Ryan kept a clean sheet, and they are all looking after each other which is a good thing for a manager.” The Hoops were overturned by Dundalk at Oriel Park on Monday so they will be especially intent on defeating Galway, but Connor remains optimistic. "We just have to keep going, it will be a massive test at Rovers. All the pressure is going to be on them. Every time we go to a big team like Rovers or Bohs they seem to have lost, and they are on the comeback. Teams like that want to hit back immediately so it makes our task doubly difficult. "The only good thing for us is that O'Donnell, Foley, Ryan, and Flood didn't play on Tuesday, and they should be available for Friday. We will have four fresh bodies to come in and that is important.” • Galway United Supporters’ Trust will be running a bus to Friday’s premier division match at Tallaght Stadium. The bus will depart from the Marriott Hotel, Headford Road, at 4pm. To book a seat contact Ronan 087-6972823. GUST has a number of match tickets available for the upcoming international friendlies at the RDS against Paraguay (Tuesday May 25 ) and Algeria (Friday May 25 ). Contact Ronan for further information.