Galway United 0

Shamrock Rovers 1

Galway United showed plenty of huff and puff on Friday night, but it was not enough to blow the house down as their wretched run against Shamrock Rovers extended to a 21st consecutive defeat against the Hoops on Friday night.

The home side can’t be faulted for effort, but effort should be the minimum requirement, and instead it was once again that lack of magic in and around the opposition penalty area that let the home side down.

They drew a blank for the fourth time in six games, and in a game of few chances for either side, one goal was always likely to be enough, and it was the visitors who showed the greater predatory instincts to snatch their first win of the season as Johnny Kenny showed great poacher’s instincts to score six minutes from time.

The game was watched by was a decent crowd, with a fair smattering of Rovers fans, the Dublin club having been issued with additional tickets during the week as United struggled to sell-out the game – in the end, the attendance was announced as 4,131, just short of the official capacity of 4,300, with Galway’s sporting public spoiled for choice over the weekend.

It was an incredible week of sport in Galway, with the reigning All-Ireland hurling and Gelic football champions in town on Saturday for a double-header at Pearse Stadium, but it was United who kicked-off the Weekend of Champions as last year’s First Division champions welcomed the reigning Premier Division champions to Eamonn Deacy Park for a game that was played in front of the RTÉ cameras.

Both sides showed one change from their previous outings, which both ended in scoreless draws: Al-Amin Kazeem came in for Regan Donelon for United; while Darragh Nugent started for the visitors in place of Aaron Greene.

Pictured: Stephen Walsh rises highest but heads narrowly wide in the 81st minute of the game. Photos: Michael Gough.