Hard work reaping reward for Galway
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Following a win that keeps his side atop of the Premier Division table with the only perfect start of the campaign, Galway United manager Ian Foster emphasised the team effort that is reaping rewards for his willing side. Below is a sample of the manager's post-match comments.
Reaction to tonight's performance - "Tonight's more pleasing because, as I said a couple of weeks ago, we didn't win a home game last season until October, which is relegation form, so I'm delighted to get that monkey off our back early doors and get three points at home."
Cagey opening period - "We weren't quite at it for the first thirty minutes. They actually did in the first twenty minutes what we wanted to do to them. We didn't get close enough, we didn't deal with O'Callaghan in the first twenty minutes. But after that we dealt with it a bit better. Still, the tempo wasn't quite high enough first half."
Half time team talk - "I just had a little go at them about the intensity. It wasn't enough, we didn't play in the right areas of the pitch, we didn't squeeze high enough. Basically, the things that got us success down at Richmond Park, we didn't do."
Defensive solidity - "The back five, and Sean Kelly in front of them, are all doing very, very well. We defend as a unit, as an eleven. Vinny's working really hard to keep defences going one way. If Jay and Derek squeeze high up the pitch we can go and get the ball up top and it saves our back five an awful lot of work. When we press and when we play on the front foot we're as good as a lot of teams in this division. When we don#t do it like we didn't first half then we look sloppy."
Reaction to tonight's performance - "Tonight's more pleasing because, as I said a couple of weeks ago, we didn't win a home game last season until October, which is relegation form, so I'm delighted to get that monkey off our back early doors and get three points at home."
Cagey opening period - "We weren't quite at it for the first thirty minutes. They actually did in the first twenty minutes what we wanted to do to them. We didn't get close enough, we didn't deal with O'Callaghan in the first twenty minutes. But after that we dealt with it a bit better. Still, the tempo wasn't quite high enough first half."
Half time team talk - "I just had a little go at them about the intensity. It wasn't enough, we didn't play in the right areas of the pitch, we didn't squeeze high enough. Basically, the things that got us success down at Richmond Park, we didn't do."
Defensive solidity - "The back five, and Sean Kelly in front of them, are all doing very, very well. We defend as a unit, as an eleven. Vinny's working really hard to keep defences going one way. If Jay and Derek squeeze high up the pitch we can go and get the ball up top and it saves our back five an awful lot of work. When we press and when we play on the front foot we're as good as a lot of teams in this division. When we don#t do it like we didn't first half then we look sloppy."
About Alan Dooley
is one of Extratime's longest serving contributors. Based in County Galway, Alan has been following the League of Ireland since the mid-1980s. His first memory of the drama of domestic football was Vinny Arkins, then … View Full Profile