- Pete Kelly
- Sat, Apr 28 2018
Alan Murphy became Galway United's all-time leading goalscorer as the Tribesmen put Cobh Ramblers to the sword at Eamonn Deacy Park on Friday night.
Conor Barry scored a spectacular opener and a scrappy second before Murphy slotted away a historic penalty as Shane Keegan's side bounced back from last week's 2-0 defeat to Shelbourne.
Galway dominated possession from the outset, but Cobh offered staunch resistance which was the hall mark of their game all night.
The opening goal came on 17 minutes and it was a cracker. Ryan Connolly, showing that he is finding his old form, picked out Barry and he rifled a sublime finish to the bottom corner from a wide angle.
Five minutes later Barry doubled his and Galway’s tally when he was on hand to scramble a ball to the net from inside the six-yard box with the Cobh defence at panic stations.
Cobh had their only chance of the half on 30 minutes but Cian Leonard could not keep his shot down, but to be fair it was a difficult ask.
urphy stepped up on the stroke of half time to notch his 75th goal for Galway United and put the game to bed.
The goal edged Murphy ahead of the legendary Paul ‘Ski’ McGee as Galway’s all time top league scorer.
Perhaps the second half was destined to be an anticlimax, but in fairness to Cobh they never gave up and did create some chances.
Galway, for their part, seemed to run out of ideas and couldn’t quite break down the visitors dogged defence.
In reality the only incidences that got the crow of 743 animated in the second half was referee Tom Dempsey’s ‘trigger happy’ waving of yellow cards for innocuous clashes.
Galway almost rounded off their night with a flowing movement in the finals minutes, but Carlton Ubaezuonu’s effort was thwarted by Paul Hunt’s finger tip save.
The home side bounced back here after last week’s loss to Shels, but an improvement is required.
One bright spark for Galway was the man of the match display by Ryan Connolly – more of that will be needed.
Cobh are facing a hard struggle with their young squad, but they don’t lack character and in David Hurley they have a fine player.
Galway United: Tadhg Ryan, Gary Shanahan, Robbie Williams, Stephen Walsh,(Maurice Nugent,89) Marc Ludden, Conor Melody,(Alex Byrne, 77) Ryan Connolly, Conor Barry, Carlton Ubaezuonu, Alan Murphy,(Stephen Kenny, 77) Conor Layng.
Subs not used: Arek Mamala, Eoin McCormack, Ronan Manning, Adam Rooney.
Booked: Conor Melody (64), Alan Murphy (69), Stephen Walsh (81).
Cobh Ramblers: Paul Hunt, Kevin Taylor, (Stephen Christopher, 80) Adam O’Sullivan, James Sweeney, Ian Mylod, Jaze Kabia,(Denzil Fernandes,76) Pierce Phillips, Darren Murphy, David Hurley, Anthony McAlavey, Cian Leonard (Andrew Wall, 86).
Subs not used: Ben O’Riordan, Adam Mylod, Michael Sadys Beineon O’Brien Whitmarsh.
Booked: Anthony McAlavey (81).
Referee: Tom Dempsey.
Attendance: 743 (official).
Extratime.ie Player of the Match: Ryan Connolly (Galway United).
