League Report: Galway United 3 - 1 Limerick

A beautiful evening in Galway saw the Tribesmen win a vital match as they hope to avoid relegation.

For a side struggling to score goals this season they managed to break out on Friday night, defeating Limerick 3-1 thanks to goals from Ronan Murray, Padraic Cunningham and Eoin McCormack.

The first chance of the night fell to Limerick’s Rodrigo Tosi with just over 10 minutes gone. The Brazilian will be embarrassed by his effort, however, after Lee Lynch placed the ball at his feet in front of Conor Winn and the striker blasted the ball over the bar just yards from the goal.

Chiedozie Ogbene’s pace was a real danger throughout the game and he showed it off when he ran onto Dean Clarke’s through ball in the first half. The forward looked certain to score but Lee Grace just got across the player to block down the shot.

It was a half of very few chances but Galway managed to break the deadlock, scoring their first goal from a piece of pure inspiration by Murray.

Marc Ludden played a great ball forward to Murray and the striker took the ball down on his chest, took a touch on the ground and then struck the ball into the top corner of the Limerick net, from distance, for what is most definitely a goal of the season contender.

Two minutes later the Tribesmen struck again. Cunningham skipped around the Limerick defence and managed to hold off challenges from the defenders and find himself in front of Brendan Clarke. The striker made no mistake and he smashed the ball into the bottom corner to double the Galway lead, his second goal in two games.

We haven’t seen Galway take the lead too often this season so it was a curious thing to see how they’d get on taking a two-goal lead into the second half.

Limerick came close to halving the deficit when Lee-J Lynch popped a lovely cross into the Galway box. Tosi met the ball but Conor Winn was in the perfect position to easily save the header.

The Super Blues really tried to turn the screw as they attempted to claw a goal back and United had a serious scare from a Limerick corner when the ball found itself bobbling into the net after coming down from the huddle of players. Colm Horgan just managed to stop the ball on the line and hold onto his side’s two goal lead.

A break in concentration was almost Galway’s undoing half way through the first half when a harmless ball was trailing back towards Winn. Horgan let the ball go past him not realising that Ogbene was lying in wait directly behind him but Winn did just enough to slap the ball away from the forward.

Galway spent most of the second half defending and they had an answer for everything Limerick threw at them, but against the run of play United nicked a third goal to ensure they got the three points.

Substitute McCormack stole the ball deep in the Limerick half after some confusion between the Limerick defence. The striker managed to shirk all the oncoming challenges and slip the ball past Clarke for his first goal as a Tribesman.

Limerick finally managed to get one goal back but it was a consolation goal for the Super Blues, coming in the last couple of minutes of regular time.

Substitute Garbhan Coughlan got his name on the score sheet as he wrangled his way into the Galway box from the right flank. Coughlan made no mistake placing the ball into the far corner past Winn.

There wasn’t enough time for Limerick to really worry Galway, however, and Shane Keegan’s side gratefully took the three points on the night to lift them off the foot of the table.

Galway United: Conor Winn; Colm Horgan, Lee Grace, Stephen Folan, Marc Ludden; Kevin Devaney, Alex Byrne, David Cawley, Gavan Holohan (Conor Melody, 84); Ronan Murray (Gary Shanahan, 88), Padraic Cunningham (Eoin McCormack, 74).

Subs not used: James Tierney, Paul Sinnott, Vinny Faherty, Gary Kineen.

Booked: David Cawley (18).

Limerick: Brendan Clarke, Joe Crowe, David O’ Connor, Tony Whitehead, Robbie Williams; Lee Lynch (Stephen Kenny, 80), Shane Duggan, Bastien Hery, Chedozie Ogbene; Rodrigo Tosi (John O’Flynn,59), Dean Clarke (Garbhan Coughlan, 59).

Subs not used: Freddy Hall, Paul O’Conor, Shane Tracy, Chris Mulhall.

Booked: None.

Referee: Neil Doyle.

Attendance: 1,471 (official).

Extratime.ie Player of the Match: Stephen Folan (Galway United).