Tommy Dunne’s Galway United travel with renewed confidence to Tallaght Stadium tomorrow for a clash against Shamrock Rovers.
Encouraged by Friday’s SSE Airtricity League premier division 2-0 win over Bohemians, Dunne is now targeting a top six finish for United.
“We aren’t looking in the other direction, I know results probably went our way as well. We are only three points behind fifth, but to finish in the top half is what we are looking for," he says.
“It would be a great achievement for this year. It would be a progression from last year, but you are always looking for more.
“We’ve had a bad spell and it has cost us. I think fourth will get Europe with what is happening in the cup. When we played Rovers a few weeks ago, we didn’t take our chances and we conceded just before half time. That was a six-point swing and now we have to play them again, so it is disappointing from that aspect. I did feel there was a possibility of getting to that fourth position, but we might need to be careful that we aren’t getting ahead of ourselves either."
Dunne says United have made progress. “We are getting that little bit better. We need to improve our group. For us to compete with the top half of the table, a lot of things need to be done. We need to possibly have a bigger budget, we need to have a stronger squad, and we need to go over more full time than we are.”
Dunne was delighted Armin Aganovic and Kevin Devaney struck second-half goals for United.
“I think we deserved the three points,” Dunne says. “Our first-half performance especially was really good. We created three clear-cut chances and our general play was extremely good.
“I thought it was a competitive game with a good tempo, especially in the first half. It’s something that possibly we’ve been lacking in recent weeks. We got our just rewards for the first half performance.”
Bohemians goalkeeper Shane Supple was outstanding, making a string of fine saves, but United’s perseverance was rewarded. “When you get three chances like we did and we’re going in at half time saying we might not get another chance or it might be scrappy in the second half,” Dunne commented about the missed opportunities.
“I think the first goal we got was scrappy, but we said we’ll have to dig deep and the main thing is that we don’t concede. We were lucky, Bohs had one off the post, but we deserve a bit of luck, we haven’t had much over the last few weeks."
Time to push on
Dunne says it is now time to push on. “We’ve got seven games to go. We’ve some big games against Cork City twice, Rovers, Dundalk. They’re nice matches, good matches for everybody involved. We went through a sticky patch, but it’s important for us to believe and perform and that what it’s about.”
Aganovic furiously celebrated his first goal for the club in the 66th minute of the Bohs' triumph and wants United to take Shamrock Rovers' scalp now.
“To play football is all about the fans,” Aganovic says. “I’m a very passionate guy, I can’t hold it back.
“A clean sheet is the most important thing for a defender. That’s what I’m most pleased about. Clean sheets are the goal, it’s the mission and the objective for every defender.
“We’re away to Shamrock Rovers next and we have shown that we can beat every team in this league, we’re going there for three points and nothing else.”
•Galway United Supporters Trust is running a bus to Friday's match at Tallaght Stadium, leaving The Dail Bar, Middle Street, Galway, at 4pm. Seats can be booked by contacting Stephen Dowling 086-2361040 or Ronan Coleman 087-6972823.
