The Galway Angle

Galway has always been renowned for the constant supply of gifted talent to the Airtricity League or as we oldies still like to call it, the League of Ireland, and that is still the case after a great night for the Galway players playing in the league last Friday night.

It may have taken a couple weeks and after a very promising pre-season, were the goals flowed with no problem to excite the Galway public in anticipation of the 2014 season with the emergence of new club Galway FC, but they had to wait until last week to cheer a first goal and last Friday night to celebrate a first league win after three draws and an narrow 1-0 opening night defeat by Longford.

But they say good things come to those who wait and last Friday night that promising Galway side unleashed, well partly anyways, their attacking threat as Stephen Walsh put in a man of the match performance, not for first time in the LOI, with two goals, while exciting prospect Ryan Manning scored a wonderful solo effort and Jason Molloy rounded it all off for a deserving 4-0 win.

All three were part of the Mervue Utd squad that finished third in the First Division last season, both Molloy and Manning came through the underage structure at Fahy’s Field, while Walsh was a product of the Galway Hibernians academy.

While the goals flowed in Deacy Park on Friday in the big Premier Division game at Inchicore, between last season’s top two sides, St Pats and Dundalk, another former Mervue Utd player, Pat Hoban, was putting in a man of the match performance, while another former Fahy’s Field regular, John Mountney (yes we know he is from Mayo!), had pulled his side level with a cracking free-kick having gone a goal down to the champions.  Former Salthill Devon star, Daryl Horgan, arguably the best winger in the Premier Division, then supplied the second in a 4-1 win with a contender for goal of the season in front of the live RTE cameras. Another Galway native Stephen O’Donnell and former Galway Utd captain also contributed to the Dundalk win from his captain’s role in central midfield as he ran Hoban close for the man of the match award.

Up north at the Brandywell former Mervue and Salthill striker Enda Curran was making headlines as his fine strike provided Derry City with the match winner in the North/East derby win over Sligo Rovers to hand Roddy Collins a first league win since taking over on Foyleside.

That was an important goal as extratime.ie reporter Chris McNulty told us “Curran's goal was giving Derry their first win over their neighbours in sixteen attempts and their first home win in seven years over the Bit O'Red.” I ‘d safely say Enda is already a fans favourite around the Brandywell after that strike.

Former Galway Utd and Mervue Utd Under 21 and minor captain and now LOI veteran, at this stage of his medal laden career, Alan Keane, was in the defeated Sligo side along with former Salthill Devon star, John Russell. Down in Thomand Park another couple of former Mervue Utd underage graduates, Rory Gaffney and Stephen Folan (also had a stint with Salthill before moving to Newcastle Utd) were in the Limerick side that grabbed a late late 1-1 draw with the students of UCD.

Other Galway natives to feature in the League included goalkeeper Conor Winn (Finn Harps) whose side suffered a 2-0 loss at league leaders, Shelbourne, while another goalkeeper Conor O’Malley also experienced defeat in the First Division as his Shamrock Rovers B team lost out 3-2 away to Wexford Youths.

Instead of an Airtricity Team of the Week, we now have a Galway Airtricity Team of the Week –

Connor Gleeson (Galway FC); Colm Horgan (Galway FC), Mark Ludden (Galway FC), Cian Fadden (Galway FC), Martin Conneely (Galway FC); Daryl Horgan (Dundalk), Stephen O’Donnell (Dundalk), Ryan Manning (Galway FC); Enda Curran (Derry City), Pat Hoban (Dundalk), Stephen Walsh (Galway FC).

Those who didn’t make that team could form a second eleven - Conor Winn (Finn Harps);  Alan Keane (Sligo Rovers), Stephen Folan (Limerick FC), Paul Sinnot (Galway FC), Mike Elwood (Galway FC); Jason Molloy (Galway FC), John Russell (Sligo Rovers), Noel Varley (Galway FC), John Mountney (Dundalk);  Rory Gaffney (Limerick FC), Vinny Faherty (Galway FC).

The future is looking much brighter on the banks of the Corrib as a push to return to the top flight is what Galway followers look forward to in the not too distance future. But the Mervue and Salthill contribution should not be forgotten as they kept League of Ireland football alive in the city and also continued to bring quality players through their coaching structures at Fahy’s Field and Drom and more importantly will continue to do so into the foreseeable future which should only benefit Galway on the national stage.