NOTHING will be decided in terms of the league title this Friday when Galway United head to the RSC to take on Waterford FC (7.45pm), but the visitors know a win in the meeting of the top-two will all but seal the First Division title for the men from the west.

To be honest, Friday’s game off the side of the Cork Road on the southern outskirts of Ireland’s oldest city is something of a free-hit for United: take the three points and the title race is as good as over, and a draw will almost be as useful; while even if they lose, it will only cut their lead at the top of the table to 13 points, and while Waterford do have a game in hand, it would take an incredibly shambolic end-of-season run by United to see them throw away the title.

Instead, all the pressure is on the home team, and that could very well play into the hands of a United side that have a decent recent record over the Blues, with two wins from two this season, and four wins from seven games between this season and last.

Only the management trio of John Caulfield, Ollie Horgan, and Chris Collopy will know if their thinking is along the same lines, but they would never say so publicly: as expected, Horgan was sounding a note of caution this week when looking ahead to what should be a cracking game on Friday.

“Waterford have technically very good players, and with Keith [Long, the manager] and Alan Reynolds [his assistant] down there, they play very attractive football. They have players who have played at a high level in England, as well as the local lads like Shane Griffin, and it will be a handful.

“They have huge attacking threats, they are very easy on the eye, I don’t know how many goals Ronan [Coughlan] has, around 30, and they have a lot of other technical players who have played at a high level, we are very aware of what we are going into,” Horgan told Tribune Sport this week.

Pictured: Galway United Assistant Coach Ollie Horgan and Head Coach John Caulfield urging on their team in Monday’s First Division win over Treaty United at Eamon Deacy Park. PHoto: Joe O’Shaughnessy,