Galway United came away from the Tallaght Stadium last Friday night with a point to show for their efforts for the third visit in succession, but Ollie Horgan feels his side’s draw was more impressive than the two similar results in west Dublin last season.

The Tribesmen played out a 1-1 draw with the Hoops on both of their visits last season, but her Galway Unted assistant manager says it was a very different Shamrock Rovers side that the visitors held to a scoreless draw last Friday, but that the game is done now and the focus is already on to the next game.

“If you look at the possession stats, Shamrock Rovers had more, we sat off them, but they are on a very, very good run. It’s not like the draws we got here last year where, you know, they weren’t going as well as what they’re doing now.

“They were six points clear coming in [last Friday] and they won the last five games, so to get a result up here at any stage – but when they’re going as well as they’re going – it’s good. That said, it’s only a point we move on to Derry, which will be as difficult, and let’s see what we can get up there,” Horgan said in the media room in the bowels of the stadium after last Friday’s game.

If one was to be honest with themselves, then whatever about getting a result in Tallaght last Friday being a surprise, doing so by keeping a clean sheet was certainly unexpected: it was only the third time this season that Rovers failed to score in a game, their two previous blanks coming in the season opener against Bohs at Lansdowne Road, when they lost 1-0; and a scoreless draw at home to Derry City in lats March.

On the flip side, last Friday was just the third time this season that United managed to keep a clean sheet, and it meant that the United players could head into the midseason break in a positive frame of mind.

“A point is a point and yeah, certainly coming here to keep a clean sheet number one, not having kept a clean sheet in a long while, and to do it in Tallaght, probably we had this discussion and I said that sometimes it changes in the least expected place, and maybe Tallaght was that

“I think we deserved tonight what we got. While Shamrock Rovers had the better chances, we limited them to few. They had more of the possession, but I don’t think they’ll begrudge us getting the point here.

Pictured: Galway United assistant manager, Ollie Horgan.