Midfielder Alex Byrne is hoping Galway United can finish the SSE Aitricity League premier division season with a flourish starting by registering a win over Bohemians at Eamonn Deacy Park on Friday evening (7.45pm ).
Eight matches remain for the Tribesmen, who have only registered one point from their past five games. That recent run of form is worrying, but Byrne is adamant Tommy Dunne’s side possesses sufficient ability to respond.
“We beat Bohemians earlier in the year at home and, even though they beat us in the FAI Cup, we definitely think we can get a result because we need to get one,” Byrne says.
“We haven’t been scoring enough goals lately and that is something we need to improve on in the games that are left. We hope we can do that and we have been working on a few things since the Shamrock Rovers match.”
That was a disappointing defeat for Galway, who set up with a 3-5-2 formation for the second game in a row. In the previous encounter United drew with Derry City at the Brandywell before Gary Shaw netted the only goal for Rovers who left the west armed with three points.
“We are only getting used to it, but I thought we were working extra hard to get across the pitch to help each other out.
“That was a positive step and we did create chances especially against Shamrock Rovers. We had good chances in that game, I had one myself. We have been working very hard, we aren’t getting enough goals at the moment, but we hope that things will click for us soon.”
Byrne, a promising footballer, missed the opening two months of the campaign through injury, but is delighted to be involved regularly once more. “It has been a bit of a frustrating year for me, even when I came back I missed another few weeks or so not long after I was back. I hope that is my last injury for a while because I’m happy to be available again.
“I think we started off quite well - we had high expectations and rightly so. Then we had a few bad results and there was a drop in our performances. Maybe we were thinking we were almost there a bit, but we just have to show that we are still able to do it at this level, to keep building. We have lots of good players, we just need to show it by getting results.”
Since the mid season break United’s campaign has been fractured due to matches being rescheduled, but Byrne refuses to use that as an excuse. “I don’t know if that is the reason. There were three or so weekends when we didn’t have games, but we went through our usual routines and we had friendly games.
“We were still working hard, we played matches against Sligo Rovers and our own under 19 team, so I don’t think that was a massive factor. We just need to get a few results so we can finish the season strongly.”
Friday sees Galway United make a presentation to the An Cheathru Rua 1986 Pairc An Chathanaigh pitch committee to mark the 30th anniversary of the famous UEFA Cup fixture played at the Connemara venue.
Galway United Supporters Trust is running a bus to Shamrock Rovers at Tallaght Stadium on Friday, leaving The Dail Bar, Middle Street, at 4pm. Seats can be booked by contacting Ronan Coleman at (087 ) 6972823 or Stephen Dowling at (086 ) 2361040.
