Aaron Callaghan: We’re trying to get a bit of continuity back in the club

Athlone Town were well beaten by Galway United in their opening game of the season with the Midlanders losing 4-1 in Eamonn Deacy Park on Friday night.

 

Galway’s opening goal was cause for controversy, however, as the linesman flagged for offside when Danny Furlong struck for his first of three goals last night. The referee was having none of it and overruled his assistant to let the goal stand.

 

Athlone Town’s manager Aaron Callaghan was left puzzled by the decision.

 

“The referee said it was a block tackle, but if it was a block tackle it would have had to hit their defender as well. Very unusual one, very disappointed. Just prior to that we had a one on one with their keeper where we could have gotten in one nil up at that stage, small margins change games and once they got the first goal the momentum changed a little bit,” Callaghan said speaking after the game.

 

The manager did concede that his side are somewhat behind The Tribesmen in quality, but more importantly in preparation for the season ahead.

 



“I think they were a much better side first half. We had one or two players making their debuts and one or two playing college games during the week. We definitely have a lack of match practice. We had three or four games called off because of the weather and we’re definitely four or five weeks behind on fitness. To come up against a team the quality of Galway was difficult when you look at the players they’re bringing in in the window, Danny Furlong, it shows their intent to go on and win this league and get promoted.

 

Callaghan was also disappointed with the conceding of Galway’s second goal but after changing things around the manager was in praise of his players who upped their performance in the second half.

 

“We certainly didn’t match them first half, I have to say I thought they were the better side first half albeit with the fortuitous first goal. The second goal was disappointing form my perspective, a long throw in we didn’t deal with the second ball so we’re going in at half time two down. We changed the tactics and changed the system and I thought we were a much better side in my opinion and we had two or three chances prior to them getting their third goal which was an individual error again and we certainly got some positives in the second half performance.

 



“I said to the boys, we’re in the development phase, we’re trying to get a bit of continuity back in the club, a bit of normality back in the club, so it’s difficult as we’ve lost the game. The manner in which you lose some time, if you surrender, but we didn’t surrender in the second half and put on a really positive performance. I thought they got two goals against the run of play. We definitely had two or three chances in that second half. We were trying to win the second half and had we won that half it would have given us a bit of positivity going into the game against Cabinteely next week. We’re disappointed but we have a lot of amateur players coming together for the first time and it takes a bit of settling in.”

 

Next up for Aaron Callaghan’s side is a home fixture against Cabinteely on Friday, 2nd March (kick-off 7:45pm).