The Galway United squad is scattered around different parts of the hotel after their pre-match meal as they kill some time before heading to Ferrycarrig Park to take on Wexford FC.

A group of players are sitting on a couple of couches and chairs in one corner of the lobby, playing the card game Uno; down the corridor a little, three more are gathered around a mobile phone watching the early Friday coverage from The Masters golf tournament in Augusta.

More again are still in the dining room off the hotel bar, others are listening to music; while tucked away in the corner, the management team sits over cups of coffee.

It is all part of the process of trying to kill time after a bus journey of around four hours, and also a way to clear the mind and prepare for the task at hand later in the evening, when United would create a new club record of eight wins on the spin.

“It is a killer, I don’t sleep much,” central defender, Killian Brouder, says after the game about the long bus journey to the south-east, and the hanging around before the game itself.

“You are trying to listen to music, maybe get a game of cards going with the lads, and then you start to focus in on the game get the mindset right. It is nice to come down here after the long journey and get the win,” he says.

The Newcastle West native was brought to United from Limerick FC midway through the 2019 season by Alan Murphy, and since he joined, he is the longest consecutively at the club: Stephen Walsh is in line for his 269th appearance for the club tonight, but he missed the 2020 season, so of the current squad, Brouder is the longest consecutively at the club.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.

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