Shane Keegan: 'The one thing I was asking for us to be was to be more clinical, to be more ruthless'

Galway United Shane Keegan hailed his team's ruthlessness and efficiency as they strolled to a 3-1 victory over Limerick at Eamonn Deacy Park on Friday night.

The win lifts The Tribesmen off the bottom of the Premier Division table and manager Shane Keegan was happy with the result.

“I’m thrilled with the result. I’m singing the exact opposite tune to the one I’m singing most weeks but I thought we could have been 3-0 down before we scored,” Keegan told the assembled media after Friday night’s game.

“The one thing I was asking for us to be was to be more clinical, to be more ruthless, and to be more efficient. I’d say we had three shots on target in the game and the ball's gone into the back of the net three times.”

Galway United should be facing Dundalk next Friday night but due to The Lillywhites involvement in the Champions League next week Shane Keegan’s side have two weeks until their next game. Keegan is relieved to have gotten a positive result heading into their break.

“We’ve no game next week so tonight’s result was going to hang around for the next two weeks and if you lose, the thoughts of training and the humour lads were going to be in would be horrendous.

“It’s so rare that you get two weeks to bask in the light of victory it’s brilliant it’s going to mean that training is really enjoyable the lads are in good form, I’m good form around the house at home, it’s a big result in any ways.

“We weren’t great tonight. We’ve an awful lot to work on in training next week and we need to use next week wisely the fact that we now have a week of downtime, preparation time, whatever you want to call it that the teams around us don’t, we need to use that really wisely,” he said.

Limerick boss Neil McDonald was less than pleased leaving Galway empty handed. The Super Blues are mid-table currently but after Friday night’s loss they are just eight points ahead of the relegation zone.

The former Blackpool manager knows his side must be better if they're to make a late challenge for the top half of the table and the European places.

“I don’t think we’re in a relegation battle I think we’re trying to move towards the top but results like this and performances have to be better to win games and certainly when the chances come along we have to put it in the back of the net.

We weren’t outplayed. We weren’t opened up. They’ve taken their chances when they’ve come along and that’s why they’ve won,” he said.

“We have to make sure that we’re not heading for a relegation battle and we need a better performance in the next game because that’s all we can do, we can work hard in training.

“The boys have worked extremely hard when we’ve had a defeat to try and put that right and we’ve certainly worked hard when we win so we’ll do the exact same thing next week and we’ll be ready.”