“Treaty is a massive game for us,” Galway United manager John Caulfield says ahead of Friday’s SSE Airtricity League first division tussle at Eamonn Deacy Park (7.45pm ).
On Monday United are away to Longford Town at Bishopsgate so vital matches are arriving thick and fast for Caulfield’s team, who made a welcome return to competitive action with an impressive 5-1 win over Bray Wanderers at the Carlisle Grounds.
Stephen Walsh (2 ), Wilson Waweru, Max Hemmings, and David Hurley all bagged goals which pleased Caulfield. “It was our first game back after the break, we were very happy with the performance,” he says. “Obviously Bray had a very good draw the week before with Longford. We were quite dominant, we got a great start through Stephen Walsh and Wilson put us two up.
“Bray came out in the second half, to be fair to them they threw everything at us for the first 15 minutes and got a goal back. We held our composure, Max Hemmings got the third goal, Walshy the fourth, and Dave with the fifth. To go away to Bray Wanderers to come away with a 5-1 win we are very happy.
“We keep talking about our strength in depth and the impact our bench needs to have. It was a very humid night, you could see that players were tiring. The subs that came in definitely made a huge difference - certainly at 2-1 the impact of them coming on lifted the team. Once we got the third goal then we controlled the game until the finish.”
A busy schedule means that United’s squad will be tested. “The big thing at the moment is that you are trying to avoid injuries,” Caulfield replies. “The weather has changed dramatically, guys are dehydrating much quicker so certainly you need everyone in your squad.
“We are looking forward to it, you have a number of ex Galway United players with Treaty. So we know them well, we know how good they can be. The two times we played them this year the games have been extremely tight.”
Recapturing the drive and desire demonstrated in Bray is what Caulfield hopes United can accomplish. “Treaty look forward to playing Galway United, we are at home again, we are hoping for another huge crowd,” he says.
“We must play well, our passing against Bray was superb. We really moved the ball quickly, we were very good. We need to be at our best on Friday night to play that way.”
**Listen to the full interview with Galway United manager John Caulfield on this week’s ‘Cian on Sport’ podcast available on Soundcloud, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.
