EA Cup Report: Galway United 2 - 0 Mayo League

Galway United got their first competitive win of 2017 when they beat Mayo League in the EA Sports Cup 2-0 on Monday night.

Goals in either half from David Cawley and Vinny Faherty were enough to see Shane Keegan's side advance to the second round at the expense of Brendan Kenny's competitive county selection.

Mayo had the first real chance of the night after a cagey opening quarter of an hour. Marc Ludden hauled a Mayo player down just outside his box and James O’Donnell struck the resulting free kick well but Ciarán Nugent was well positioned to clutch the ball into his chest.

Moments later Conor Melody broke down the left flank but the winger was stopped dead in his tracks by a rash challenge by Mayo’s Sean Morrissey with the defender getting a yellow card for his efforts.

After a quiet opening to the game, on the attacking front, for Galway United, they finally went close to scoring when Vinny Faherty threaded a lovely ball through to Jesse Devers. The forward put the ball past Gary Cunningham’s post and wide however.

Neither team looked like scoring before the break but it was the Tribesmen who managed to finally make the breakthrough. A long ball made its way to Gary Shanahan just inside the Mayo box and the winger was able to look up and pull it back to David Cawley. The midfielder just managed to squeeze his low shot past Cunningham in the Mayo goal to take the lead on the stroke of half time.

The second half started off as slow as the first with the first incident of note happening on the hour mark when Devers felt confident enough to have a go from outside the box but his effort went just wide of the Mayo goal.

Mayo were giving it everything against the Premier Division side and they had a great chance to equalise when Brendan Lavelle’s high corner found the imposing Joe Lawless in the box. The defender met the ball with his head but he couldn’t find the target.

United had a chance to increase their lead after 72 minutes. Shanahan swung a cross in from the right towards an unmarked Faherty but his header couldn’t beat Cunningham, who was in a great position to keep the ball out of the net.

Devers again fancied his luck later in the half and he was unlucky not to add to Galway’s tally as his long range effort struck the woodwork.

The second half wore on but Galway United managed to double their lead just before the final whistle. A cross found its way to Vinny Faherty after taking a deflection and this time the striker made no mistake and managed to put the ball past the Mayo goalkeeper.

The Tribesmen go through to the second round of the EA Sports Cup but they return to Premier Division action this Friday when the face Connacht rivals Sligo Rovers at Eamonn Deacy Park.

Galway United: Ciarán Nugent; Colm Horgan, Paul Sinnott (Robert Spelman, 87), Lee Grace, Marc Ludden; Gary Shanahan, Alex Byrne, David Cawley, Conor Melody (Ronan Murray, 74); Vinny Faherty, Jesse Devers (Declan Sharkey, 84).

Subs not used: Conor Winn (gk), Maurice Nugent, Gary Kinneen.

Booked: None.

Mayo League: Gary Cunningham; Sean Morrisey, Cillian McGlade, Joe Lawless, James O’Donnell; Keith Duffy, Christopher Maughan, Paul Lawless (Darren Browne, 86), Philip Keegan; Brendan Lavelle (JP O’Gorman, 77), Anthony Elding.

Subs not used: Danny Broderick, Jason Hunt, Niall Casey, Mark Duffy, Michael Duffy.

Booked: Sean Morrissey (15), Paul Lawless (34), Chris Maughan (66).

Referee: Robert Hennessy.

Attendance: 250 (estimate)

Extratime.ie Man of the Match: David Cawley (Galway United).