Manager John Caulfield had reason to be buoyant after Galway United overturned a 1-0 deficit to beat Cork City 2-1 in the SSE Airticity first division.
That resilience when conceding first, a hallmark of Caulfield’s reign, had deserted his side of late so it delighted Caulfield most.
“The main thing was that we went behind and we came back to win the match,” he said.
This was the first come-from-behind win since the famous 3-2 turnaround at Treaty United back in April, and Caulfield is adamant a home win in a big game will breed confidence in his side.
“We hadn’t won in a few weeks. Some of the players had lost a bit of confidence and took a bit of stick. That does affect people. I just felt the way we came back into the game, equalised and got the winner was certainly pleasing.
"We will take confidence from that.”
It was always going to be a boisterous affair against Cork given the stakes, and while the invasion of up to 1,000 Leesiders on Galway was to be anticipated and welcomed, the pitch invasions of both home and away fans were not.
Caulfield was full of praise for the vast majority of fans who contributed towards a “cracking atmosphere”, but acknowledged that “you don’t want to see games held up for six minutes with flares.”
Thankfully from a home perspective, stopping the playing Rebel XI proved a more manageable task, and the three points prevented the visitors from winning the title in Eamon Deacy Park, providing a glimmer for United with four games to go.
While acknowledged by Caulfield, his focus is only on winning.
“We gave ourselves an outside chance, even though from my own point of view we need to see if we can put a few wins together because winning breeds confidence.”
"We can only control our own games. It is really about ourselves, getting our confidence back to the highest levels and playing to the way we can play, because I do believe that if we play at our best, we can win most of our games. Looking ahead, you need to go into the play-offs with momentum and confidence.”
It is a task the squad is relishing on the back of a splendid performance. They would have preferred the chance to carry their form into another game tomorrow, but as it stands, their next competitive fixture is away to Treaty United on Friday September 30 at 7.45pm. In the interim, United will take on Sligo Rovers in a friendly tomorrow afternoon.
