Excitement at Deacy Park as Galway go 'Do Lally' with new manager appointment

Galway have announced the appointment of Stephen Lally as senior manager following the departure of Billy Clery earlier this week.

The former Galway United men’s manager, who most recently oversaw the youth system at Mervue United, will take charge for next week’s trip to champions Peamount United.

Lally was in attendance as Galway were edged out in a seven-goal thriller at home to Athlone Town on Saturday thanks to Muireann Devaney’s last-minute winner.

The 56-year-old made more than 300 appearance for Galway over 15 years before finishing up his distinguished League of Ireland career with Athlone Town and Mervue.

He had a stint in charge of the university team at NUI Galway and has been intimately involved with the underage structure at local schoolboy powerhouse Mervue in recent years.

He succeeds the popular Clery, who announced earlier this week that he would take a step back due to family commitments, while assistant Dave Bell opted to take up a position at Waterford.

Lally will be assisted by Maz Sweeney, who took charge of the Athlone game, Tom Lally and Alana Moran as the Tribeswomen look to turn around a disappointing start to the season.

"Billy Clery has done an awful lot of work behind the scenes getting the structure of the club up and running," Lally told the Galway Advertiser.

"You have a lot of talented girls here, I'm just after meeting them, they were devastated after the result.

"I know there is much more in them, I will have a good chat with them on Tuesday and we will move on from then."

@MervueUnitedAFC would like to wish Stephen Lally best of luck on his appointment as manager @GalwayWFC In last 10 years, Stephen was head of Academy & coaching with huge success winning trophies at every level in Galway, Connacht & Nationally with both Boys & Girls. Thanks Lal pic.twitter.com/BlOS7Oxnl5

— Mervue United A.F.C. (@MervueUnitedAFC) May 23, 2021