League Preview: Shamrock Rovers -v- Galway United

SHAMROCK ROVERS

The issue of tickets for another code became a bit of a political football last week and so the Hoops have a tongue-in-cheek Tallaght offer for their game against Galway United with a couple of free tickets available on Friday for any member of the Oireachtas (kick off 8pm).

Whether President Michael D Higgins will attend as he has done so on numerous occasions remains to be seen – the former TD was also previously President of Galway United. Even if no TD or Senator avails of the generous offer to see a game crucial for Rovers’ European ambitions, there will be at least one Irish member of the European Parliament attending with Lynn Boylan tweeting that she will pay in on Friday!

Hoops fans will be hoping that their team can supply three points in a confidence boosting win but it remains to be seen if the Rovers management team will elect to go with the flat back four that they used mid-week against Dundalk.

Rovers got back on track for Europe on Tuesday when, having lost their two previous games to Cork City, they travelled up to Oriel Park and held the League of Ireland champions to a 1-1 draw. Gary Shaw was the goalscorer on the night, as he was in Rovers’ last win – an away victory against Galway United in the first week of September.

“The players showed great character in Dundalk,” said Sami Ristilä speaking to shamrockrovers.ie. “They showed great togetherness as a group which was really pleasing. Dundalk away was a big test for us but we came out of it with a good result.

“We said we needed to show that we’re better than the last two results as a group and we done that in Dundalk. The players stood up to the test and showed they are together as a group.

“I see that togetherness in training every day so it can be annoying sometimes when it doesn’t show on the pitch. But lately we’re feeling good. We’re feeling confident as we always tend to create goal-scoring chances and always score goals, bar the Cork City games. If we do the other side right, we’ll do well in games.”

The Hoops have played five matches this month but have only scored those two Shaw goals as they come into this game with just one win from their last six matches. Rovers are seeking to record a remarkable 15 consecutive competitive victories against Galway United. When the sides last met in Tallaght at the start of April, Rovers won 2-0 thanks to goals from Brandon Miele and Trevor Clarke.

“We’ll respect Galway,” said Ristilä. “They have some very good players so we’ll respect them but we are confident as a group of players. The last few weeks we had a lot of games so of course them games took their toll. Some players had some little niggles and we could not train with so many games.”

Rovers remain very much in contention for Europe as they sit in fourth place, two points behind Derry City with the two teams facing each other on the banks of the Foyle next Tuesday evening.

“The group know of targets we all set each other, and we’re still on course to reach them targets. We will just look after ourselves and we’ll be fine. We need to keep going now and keep on winning matches.”

GALWAY UNITED

Galway United grabbed their first win in six matches last week as they got back to winning ways with a hard fought 2-0 victory over Bohemians at Eamonn Deacy Park.

Tommy Dunne’s men travel to Tallaght for their second game against the Hoops in just over a fortnight. They are probably feeling hard done that they did not earn point from their recent game against Rovers at home.

Trailing to Gary Shaw’s goal on half time, United were desperately unlucky not to get a draw when Stephen Folan cracked a shot off the underside the crossbar deep into injury time. United are seventh in the table but trail Bohs just above them by a point and are three points behind fifth place Sligo Rovers.

The victory over the Gypsies for Galway was earned thanks to second half strikes from Armin Aganovic and Kevin Devaney. “The win was really important,” said Aganovic speaking to his club website about his goal scored following a scramble in the Bohs box.

“We played quite well in the last couple of games but we just haven’t scored. I hope this is a new beginning for us in the last seven games. I hope it loosens us up and it allows us to start scoring again.”

His manager was pleased with the number of chances they created against Bohs and would like to see similar in Tallaght on Friday. “It was important to get a better attacking performance against Bohemians last week,” said Tommy Dunne, speaking to GalwayUnitedFC.ie. “We created chances and we made Shane Supple work in goals for them.

“In previous weeks, we didn’t make the opposition ‘keeper work enough. We’re going into a different proposition this week against Shamrock Rovers at Tallaght. It’s a big pitch. They picked up a good result away to Dundalk.

“Our recent games against Rovers have been tight affairs, but if we can continue to create chances, we’ll give ourselves a chance of getting a positive result at Tallaght Stadium.

“We have to be positive in our approach to the game. We will set ourselves up in a certain way but we will also make sure that when we’re attacking, that we’re going all guns blazing.”

Referee: Sean Grant.

MATCH STATS

Vinny Faherty is the leading scorer from either team going into the game. The Galway striker has 11 goals to his name with Gary McCabe and Brandon Miele next on the list – both Rovers players have seven league goals each.

The Hoops will be looking at a minimum to make it 25 games without defeat against the Tribesmen – Galway have just scored one goal against Rovers in their last six matches. The last time the Hoops failed to beat Galway was in their final home game of the 2009 season.

The 1-1 draw finally ended Rovers title chances that season wtih Aaron Greene’s goal cancelling out Gary Twigg’s first half strike for the Hoops.

Friday night will be Rovers’ 1000^th Premier Division match. The team they have had most joy against in the League of Ireland’s top flight is Galway United. 40 of Rovers’ 429 victories have been against Galway.

BETTING

Shamrock Rovers 8/11; Draw 5/2; Galway United 7/2.

PREDICTION

Shamrock Rovers 2-0 Galway United

Shamrock Rovers

Injured: Luke Byrne.

Doubtful: Brandon Miele, Craig Hyland.

Suspended: None.

Galway United

Injured: José Garcia.

Doubtful: None.

Suspended: None.