An intriguing SSE Airtricity League first division season continues to unfold with Galway United hosting Treaty United at Eamonn Deacy Park tomorrow (7.45pm ).
John Caulfield’s outfit needed to demonstrate true grit and determination when securing the full complement of spoils away to Cabinteely on Friday.
“When you go to Cabinteely facing Pat Devlin's teams you always know they are going to be very hard fought games because he has a great team of battlers, who give everything for him,” Caulfield says.
“They close you down, they work really hard, they are very physical. When you go into a match like that you have to prepare for a battle, if you don't you lose points.
“The first half was even, but in the second half we certainly upped the intensity. We played much better, got behind them to start creating chances, and the game opened up which suited us. The second half performance was good, but you earn it in Cabinteely, it is a short pitch. They have shortened it obviously so it is quite tight. The surface being a rugby pitch is quite hard so you have to be prepared for those type of games.”
During a tense encounter the character United showed encouraged Caulfield. “In the second half we were good, Mikie Rowe worked a clever free kick that obviously deceived their goalkeeper in a crowded goalmouth.
“We had a number of chances to get the second. Conor McCormack seemed to come in for a lot of attention, he was fouled seven times in the second half which was incredible, a lot of tough tackles on him. They had one of their players sent off for two yellow cards.”
United were also controversially reduced to 10 men. “Conor Kearns was sent off in a bizarre situation, the first time I ever saw it in my career where the 'keeper came out, caught a ball - unfortunately [Kieran] Marty Waters ran into him - but a decision was given, a sending off which was a tough decision to take,” Caulfield reflects.
“Luke Dennison came off the bench, his first action was to make a fantastic save. We defended brilliantly from then until the end of the match which you have to do in places.”
Now a tough match with a pumped up Treaty side looms for Caulfield’s charges. “We saw with Treaty when they came to Terryland, scored early on and they had a number of chances, played really well,” Caulfield recalls.
“Then in the second half we came out, put them under a lot of pressure and scored very late.
“We saw in the game down in their place, Podge [Cunningham] came off the bench to get a fantastic header to win the game one nil. They were really tight games, Treaty are really strong defensively - Tadhg Ryan, Clyde O'Connell, Anthony O'Donnell, Marc Ludden, Jack Lynch, Sean Guerins - they have a lot of big strong guys, who are really strong in the air, they can defend really well. They don't give away goals.
“Again coming to our place we know defensively they are solid, they will sit in to play on the counter attack.
“The fact that the capacity for our own ground has been increased, we are hoping we see a massive crowd on Friday night. It is the first time that we are allowed nearly 2,000 people so hopefully we will get near that and a cracking atmosphere.”
It has been an eventful campaign with Caulfield adamant a solid structure is being constructed.
“Fair play to the players they are giving everything for the club, you could see after the Cabinteely match how much the result meant to them,” Caulfield says.
“Every week you have to be ready for the next game, you see in this division everyone is beating everyone else. The day you are not on it, you lose points. Hopefully on Friday night we will kick on again.”
