St Patrick’s Athletic 0
Galway United 3
What is it with Galway United and Richmond Park? For the third year on the spin Galway delivered a stylish display to plunder a win at the Inchicore venue, and this triumph was particularly pleasing for a plethora of reasons.
Jeff Kenna’s will-he-stay-or-will-he-go saga became tedious, and the former Galway boss suffered a harrowing evening on the banks of the Camac. Twenty yards away in the opposing dugout his buddy Ian Foster cut a composed figure as United sauntered to a shockingly comfortable success.
As so frequently happens when a team performs to its potential the positives were in plentiful supply. Barry Ryan walked off with a clean sheet. Full backs Seamus Conneely and Iarlaith Daveron were tidy and thoughtful. Centre halves Shane Guthrie and Gary Breen might have been playing their first competitive game together, but it was as if they had spent a decade on the same beat.
In the midfield Sean Kelly anchored intelligently, Cian McBrien scampered around the pitch to good effect, while Michael McGrath’s passing range was evident. Out wide Jay O’Shea demonstrated that Galway possessed the most talented footballer on view, while Derek O’Brien’s brace was invaluable. In attack Vinny Faherty bookended a typically passionate performance with a goal. There was no escaping the feel-good factor that swept through the Galway camp, and Foster was understandably chuffed. “We’ve worked really, really, hard pre-season, we’ve had plenty of minutes on the pitch and we looked strong.
“It wasn’t about me v Jeff or Galway v Jeff, it was St Patrick’s v Galway United and that didn’t enter my head, it didn’t enter the heads of the players, we never spoke about that stuff. We had a job to do against their team, we had a feeling we knew what it would be and we’ve gone and done that.”
While Galway’s football was pleasing on the eye the opening goal arrived courtesy of a set piece. O’Shea’s blistering free-kick located O’Brien, who glanced a smashing header into the bottom corner after 18 minutes.
Shortly after the restart a delightful necklace of passes featuring Conneely, O’Shea, O’Brien, and Faherty concluded with the striker stroking Galway two ahead on 49. Then three minutes later McBrien did the spadework for O’Brien to ice the cake.
O’Brien offered praise for the new gaffer Foster. “He is very organised, and we had our homework done on Pat's. We were by far the better team. We didn't want to concede, not early anyways, but we wanted to attack too.
“We were the better team in two halves when it came to attacking with myself, Jay O'Shea, and Vinny Faherty. We did go out with an element of protecting our back four, but when it came to attacking we didn't let ourselves down either.” That was an understatement as Galway scampered back to the west charmed and contented.
St Patrick’s Athletic: Rogers; Lynch, Gavin, Haverty, Ryan; O’Connor, Lester, Cawley, Freimanis (Guy, 46 ); Haran (Moran, 46 ), Leech.
Galway United: Ryan; Conneely, Breen, Guthrie, Daveron; O’Shea, McBrien (Murphy, 80 ), Kelly, McGrath, O’Brien (Synott, 90 ); Faherty (Edwards, 70 ).
Referee: A Kelly (Cork ).
