Galway United manager John Caulfield is hopeful his team can summon a defiant display against Cabinteely in the SSE Airtricity League first division at Stradbrook tomorrow, kick off 7.45pm.
Last Friday’s disappointing 3-1 defeat away to Athlone Town hurt deeply, but Caulfield is adamant United’s squad has the character to respond in the capital.
“The most important thing for any group is that in sport you are always going to get a setback,” Caulfield says. “It is about how you respond and react afterwards.
“For us to go to Cabinteely, who have won both their games and be top of the table it is a huge challenge. It will be a huge challenge for us to give a big performance. The basics for any team is hard work, great attitude, you need those no matter what talent you have.
“Taking over this team since pre-season we have a great group of lads, they are training incredibly hard, they are doing everything in their power to get results, and I have no doubt in a long season that the lads will show how good they are.”
Despite the Athlone reversal Caulfield still believes his United outfit possesses significant potential. “In the immediate when you lose a game you do take a lot of criticism and that is part of it,” Caulfield adds.
“As a new team that is part of learning that you do take criticism, you have to bounce back from that. Friday is another challenge for us.
“You must get your fundamentals right - hard work and grit. You have to show that and then you show your talent. You must do the basics right and hopefully we will get a good reaction on Friday night, but it will be a very difficult night.”
The opening two rounds have been packed with tight matches involving several clubs, who reckon promotion is an attainable target.
“Absolutely, I said from the start it is wide open,” Caulfield replies. “Every team has improved, the standard is higher with all of the teams compared to last year. Everyone is going for those promotion spots.
“As the early weeks have shown us you have to leave everything on the pitch, we got deservedly beaten last weekend and now we go to Cabinteely, who are top of the table.
“They had a fantastic win last week, they will be expecting to beat us so we have to make sure we leave everything on the pitch in order to get a result.”
United’s fixture in the capital will be revealing according to Caulfield. “Cabinteely have won their two games, we know the Pat Devlin and Eddie Gormley combination,” Caulfield remarks. “Devo's teams are always hard working, honest teams, who will compete for everything.
“They will be another team competing for the league and they have secured two great results, they had a big win against Cork last week. So we are expecting another huge battle. We have to go out to make sure we play to the best of our ability.”
Killian Brouder, Stephen Christopher, and Ronan Manning have returned to training for United with Caulfield expecting them to be available for competitive action shortly.
“It is difficult when some of them haven't played in six weeks, then to throw them in it is always difficult,” Caulfield says. “They are back in training and I'd hope over the next few weeks they will get some game time.”
