Galway United boss Keegan hails 'absolutely outstanding' hat-trick by Gavan Holohan

Galway United manager Shane Keegan was in jovial humour after his side beat bottom of the table Drogheda United 4-1 in a crucial relegation six pointer on Friday night in Eamonn Deacy Park.

The Tribesmen have now won two on the bounce, the first time they’ve done so since March 2016, and Keegan claims he had looked at both the Limerick and Drogheda games as a great opportunity for quite some time.

“With no disrespect to Limerick or Drogheda we had eyed this up from the time the Dundalk game was moved. It’s probably the only time this season that we had back to back games at home that we felt were both winnable,” Keegan told the assembled media after Friday night’s game.

Although happy with the three points the manager is still unhappy with his side’s inability to keep a clean sheet having only kept one all year in league competition, against Derry City.

“We’re winning emphatically but we’re still not winning with clean sheets which is the one annoying part about it. Conor Winn is very annoyed in there and rightly so, he actually nearly pulled off a fantastic save for their goal he was very unlucky that it managed to sneak in under the crossbar but that’s only a slight downside to what has been two very good performances,” he said.

Galway United were spurred on to victory by a Gavan Holohan hat-trick against his former club.

“Three tap ins yeah?” Keegan joked about his midfielder’s impressive feat.

“We’ve tweaked the system and probably the main reason for tweaking the system was Gavan. Gavan was quite often playing as one of two deep midfielders alongside David Cawley he can play there no problem but there’s no doubt that to get the most out of Gavan Holohan you need him over the line and in the attacking third.

“It’s no coincidence that since we’ve moved Gavan’s position we’re on the back of two wins and a draw in those three games, absolutely outstanding finishes tonight,” he said.

Drogheda United manager Pete Mahon was understandably disappointed with the result, and he expressed his frustration at his side not doing the basics.

“A comprehensive beating in the end, there was a bit of a flicker of life when we got back at 2-1 but then we continued to give away two goals,” he said speaking after the game.

“The last goal, Lee Grace had a free header at the back post. That’s basic stuff. No manager no coach can do anything about that. You can work on it at the training ground, you can do this you can do that, it’s disheartening.”

Mahon also detailed the struggle ahead for his side and he alludes to the possibility that maybe his side aren’t cut out for this standard of football.

“We got promotion last year and maybe it wasn’t the best thing in the world to happen to us but you have to take promotion when you get it and we’re finding out just how big a step up it is to the Premier Division because every time you make a mistake here if the goalkeeper doesn’t pull of a brilliant save like he has been doing then it usually ends up a goal.

“We’ve a lot of work to do and we’re running out of time and if we don’t win next week against St Pat’s then we’ll have a real mountain to climb but there’s 10 games to go and we have to stay positive.”