Season Review 2022: Galway United

Team: Galway United

Head Coach: John Caulfield

Top Scorer: Stephen Walsh, 16 goals (14 First Division, 2 FAI Cup)

Stadium: Eamonn Deacy Park

Highest Attendance: 4,115 (0-1 loss v Cork City, 27 May)

Lowest Attendance: 1,034 (3-3 draw v Longford Town, 21 October)

Star Player: Stephen Walsh

You truly love to see it – a player in the later stages of their career managing to reinvent themselves and succeed in spectacular fashion. Stephen Walsh’s form in front of goal and his general play, clear levels of fitness and determination set him out as a clear stand-alone member of John Caulfield’s squad.

‘Mr Galway United’ as he has been referred to as by his manager over the past couple of seasons, had his days numbered as a left back this year as Alex Murphy nailed down that spot after his performances last season. Instead, Walsh was deployed up front and what a return with 16 goals across all competitions in 2022, a nomination for First Division Player of the Year and a spot in the First Division Team of the Year.

Walsh had played as a striker at times over a decade ago but had been plying his trade as a defender for the vast majority of his career. To turn around this year and put in the performances he did as a striker is just spectacular.

The Galway native even began the season far off being a first-choice striker for Galway United, but when he came off the bench to dig the Tribesmen out of holes against Waterford and Bray early on in the season it wasn’t long until he became an indispensable part of the team.

If he can bring that form into 2023, he’ll be an essential part of John Caulfield’s side as they to once again escape the First Division.

Best Young Player: Alex Murphy

It might seem a tad unfair to pick a player who didn’t play for Galway beyond the first week in July, though the fact that it was his move to Newcastle United that prevented him making any more appearances for the Tribesmen is indicative of just how good this teenager is.

The fact that United had only two wins out of their remaining 11 First Division games when Murphy left is at least partially down to the absence of the defender – who would have been written about in the star player section had he remained for the entirety of the season.

His runs up the left flank caused trouble during his half season for the opposition, and his extremely assured defending, even since his debut as a 16 year old in 2021 would make uninformed observers presume he was a well experienced campaigner.

Key moments for Murphy, looking back on the year, were his run up the left flank against Cork City in Turners Cross where he linked up with Wilson Waweru to set Ed McCarthy up for the winning goal and his goal to equalise for United as they came back from the dead to beat Treaty United having gone 2-0 down earlier in the game.

Murphy has been with Newcastle for almost half a year now where he is playing with their under 21 side – the teenager could have massive future ahead of him in the game if he continues his rise.

Best New Signing: Ed McCarthy

This was a fairly easy decision based on the fact that almost none of John Caulfield’s new signings at Eamonn Deacy Park worked out the way he would have hoped.

McCarthy is one of the signings that did add to the Tribesmen this year – the 21 year old made the move to Galway having left Treaty United in September 2021 and then having a brief spell with Regional United.

With 31 appearances across all competitions for United he was a key player across the season and while he possibly wasn’t able to hold on to a consistent level of form at all times throughout the season overall the midfielder performed extremely well.

His long mazy runs up the field were a sight to behold in a side that honestly seems to be allergic to taking on defenders, his athleticism and determination added to that made him a good fit for a John Caulfield led team.

McCarthy also netted three times, twice against Cobh Ramblers but his key goal came during Galway’s first game of the season away to Cork City when Alex Murphy set him up to drive the ball into the net as he timed his run into the box perfectly to meet the cross.

What we expected they would do:

Ahead of the 2022 season the extratime.com team expected Galway Untied to finish in second place – interestingly behind Waterford who we predicted to go up as champions.

What they actually did:

SSE Airtricity League 3^rd

United managed to finish in a worse position than last year, despite obvious significant financial resources behind the team once again.

It was a third-place finish for them, one lower than last year when Shelbourne won the First Division title, eventually finishing behind Cork City and Waterford as United couldn’t string an ounce of form together in the second half of the season.

Eventually it was eight points that separated Galway from Cork, which is a bigger gap than last year when they finished six points off Shelbourne.

The fans certainly let it be known that they were disappointed towards the end of the season with chants of ‘we want Caulfield out’ a regular feature in the stands as they prepared for the playoffs.

That disappointment is certainly warranted as United’s poor showing in the end is actually baffling. The Tribesmen had superior head-to-head records against both Cork City and Waterford in the First Division but losses to Athlone Town and Bray Wanderers, and a draw with Cobh Ramblers late in the season cost them dearly, all teams that failed to make the playoffs.

The final time they put a sequence of wins together was in early July when they beat Waterford and Cobh to have two wins on the bounce.

United fell off a cliff from that point on with two wins from their final eleven First Division games which saw them fall to third place and the playoffs again this season.

One would imagine questions should be asked about a management team that oversaw such a disgraceful run of form. The mid-season signings around the time their form dried up were questionable also aside from James Finnerty who joined the club from Bohemians.

Bastien Hery came in from Finn Harps and showed a bit of what he could do, but he never really reached full fitness. Adam Thomas came in from Shelbourne and made little impact on the field. Curiously, former Harps player Mark Russell signed as a decent replacement for the departing Alex Murphy and then went missing weeks later (not really, he left the club and signed for Portadown). Rob Manley also joined the club but for whatever reason wasn’t favoured by the management and spent most of his time coming off the bench.

In the playoffs they managed to see off Longford Town in the first round. They actually went behind twice in the first leg, courtesy of two Jordan Adeyemo goals – the striker had left Galway just months earlier. United were rescued that night by two Mikie Rowe goals off the bench.

In one of their few dominant displays of the season they defeated De Town 3-0 in the second leg, which you would expect Galway to do nine times out of ten as it was Longford’s third time meeting them in about a week (the side having faced one another in their final regular League game before the playoffs).

The 3-0 loss to Waterford in the next round of the playoffs was a stunning rubber stamp to an overall let down of a season for Galway.

Conor Kearns rare mistake to allow Junior Quitirna the opening goal in the ninth minute began a depressing night for a large Galway travelling support at Markets Field.

Wassim Aouachira added a second later, but Galway could have had a foothold had Stephen Walsh converted a 79^th minute penalty. Quitirna then added the Blues third goal two minutes later to dump Galway out of the playoffs and end their season.

FAI Cup

Galway made it as far as the second round of this year’s FAI Cup competition with a 7-0 win over a ten man Bluebell United at Tolka Park in July.

They were then knocked out of the competition at home when they came from behind twice to level the contest at 2-2 but a mistake by Matthew Connor allowed Thomas Lonergan in to score minutes before the end of the game which saw the Tribesmen out of the Cup in August.

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— Extratime.com (@ExtratimeNews) November 27, 2022