Galway United 1 - 0 Kerry FC - PREVIEW | 2023 League of Ireland First Division | extratime.com - The Home of Irish Football

- Eamonn Deacy Park
Referee:

League Preview: Galway United -v- Kerry

Andrew Dempsey
Fri, Jun 30 2023

GALWAY UNITED

John Caulfield backed his title-chasing Galway United to remain focused when they take on Kerry at Eamonn Deacy Park (kick-off at 7.45pm).

The Tribesmen are now 13 points clear of Waterford at the top of the table and look set to confirm their return to the Premier Division at the end of the season.

But Caulfield insists that his side must keep with the task on hand.

“You have to keep your focus and make sure that your players do not think too far ahead,” he told Galway Bay FM this week.

“That’s always the danger and that is why sport is so brilliant. Anything happen and players are human so they can lose their focus.

“From our point of view, the attitude and focus of players has been outstanding. However, it is from now until the end of the season when we have to deliver.

“We know Waterford will be there until the end and we are hearing that they are bringing in four new players.

“But from our point of view we will be looking to stay in control and deliver performances.”

KERRY

Kerry boss Billy Dennehy is hoping that his side can continue to learn when they visit Galway United on Friday night.

On their last to Eamonn Deacy Park, the Kingdom fell to a nightmare 9-1 defeat against the Tribesmen – but they have recovered since then.

A first win as a senior League of Ireland club has arrived since then – and they have achieved that with the likes of Shane Guthrie, Wayne Guthrie, Jonathan Hannafin and Junior Ankomah all out.

“We’re learning every day,” Dennehy said, as quoted by the Kerryman. “There’s so much that goes on in terms of a match day and performances and trying to improve things.

“When we went up to Galway we were very early in the league and, from my point of view, I wanted to see where our players were individually, man-for-man, against a club who were chasing promotion.

“To see that gap, and that bridge is fairly long at the moment in terms of where they are as a club and the resources they’ve put in, not just this year, but over the last three years at this point.

“They’ve had a full-time environment for the last number of years trying to be promoted and you can certainly see that in some of their players.

“But from our point of view when we played them at home we had a bit more experience under our belt.

Referee: Kevin O’Sullivan.

PREDICTION

Galway United 4-0 Kerry

Galway United

Injured: Darren Clarke, Colm Horgan, Ibrahim Keita.

Doubtful: N/A.

Suspended: None.

Kerry

Injured: Jonathan Hannafin, Wayne Guthrie, Junior Ankomah.

Doubtful: None.