Galway Captain Ryan Connolly targets top half finish

Galway United midfielder and skipper Ryan Connolly was in attendance at Wednesday’s 2016 SSE Airtricity League launch at the Aviva Stadium and he spoke to Extratime.ie reporter Dylan Murphy about his sides aims for the season ahead.

Galway United narrowly avoided relegation to the First Division last season having finished tenth, only two points clear of the relegation play-off place.

However, ahead of the new season, their captain Ryan Connolly admitted that they’ll be aiming for a better league finish in 2016.

“We are planning on doing better than last year were we finished tenth. We’re looking to improve on that, but it’s important that we get off to a good start because we didn’t start very well last year,” Connolly said.

Connolly did admit that avoiding relegation was their aim for last season but he feels that things could have been more comfortable than they were, with the Tribesmen still involved in the relegation tussle heading into the final rounds of the campaign.

“Overall if you gave us that (tenth place finish) at the start of the season it would have been deemed a success but going back over the season we feel that we underachieved.

“We need to start off well and keep our consistency. There was a lot of games last year that we shouldn’t have lost.”

Galway haven’t finished in the top half of the Premier Division in over a decade, however, Connolly says that is the target for this season.

“You have to aim high and a top half finish is the aim. The top four are there and obviously we’re not writing ourselves off but their budgets are way above everyone else’s. We’ll be aiming to finish just below them.”

Galway’s pre-season has gone “well” according to Connolly. The Tribesmen won two games and lost one. Their victories coming over UCD and Longford Town, while they fell to a 2-1 defeat against Shelbourne in Eamonn Deacy Park.

“It’s (pre-season) gone really well. It’s been quite tough on the body but the boys have progressed well.”

The skipper feels that they’ve gotten a better squad this year following a number of signings which include Stephen Folan, Connor Gleeson, Ruairí Keating, Kevin Devaney and John Sullivan, a player who Connolly believes will be “a big addition” to the Galway team.

“All round this year we’re a better squad with more experience and professionalism. I think this year we will do better.”

Galway also signed Eric Foley and Armin Aganovic, with Manager Tommy Dunne having seen the pair play at a recent FIFAPRO tournament in Norway, where Foley captained the Irish side and Aganovic won Player of the Tournament.

Galway United open their 2016 league campaign in Richmond Park against St. Patrick’s Athletic on Friday 4^th of March.