If Ollie Horgan is right in saying that Galway United’s fortunes are likely to turn in the most unlikely of places, the chances are that they’ll get the better of Cork City when the Leeside outfit make the trip to Eamonn Deacy Park this Friday (7.45pm).

United are on a horrible run of four defeats on the spin, and four defeats in their last five home games, including last Friday’s disappointing showing in the Connacht derby with Sligo Rovers.

The Tribesmen put in a decent first-half shift, but just couldn’t put the ball in the net, and once the visitors took the lead midway through the second-half just a minute or so after United had hit the post, any confidence there was in the United side drained right out of them.

“Obviously, yeah, we’re on a bad run and when you’re down, you’re down, you know, when you’re up, you’re up, but we keep at it. It will turn, sometimes it turns, in my experience, in the most unexpected places, and that’s, you know, we’ve got to put in a good week’s work,” Horgan said after last Friday night’s defeat.

“Of course, the lads are down, of course we’re down, you know, when you can see the last game, [conceding] the 97th minute winner to Bohs, it does knock the confidence out of them.

“Confidence, you can’t buy it, you know, it’s very, very hard to tap it, but it can change in an instant, and it kicks back in, and that’s obviously what we’re hoping for,” he said.

United went into last Friday’s game looking to snap a three-game losing run, their worst run of results since 2019, and playing against the basement side – and one they had beaten up in Sligo earlier in the season – it looked set-up for them to end that run.

Instead they fell to a fourth defeat on the spin, and should they suffer a similar reversal to Cork City this Friday – which would match the five-game losing run at the start of that woeful 2019 season – then they will have gone from leading the table at half-time against Drogheda to being dragged into a relegation scrap in the space of a month.

“There is no disgrace losing to a good Sligo side,” Horgan said on Friday, “and they are a decent side, we need to try and put it right against Cork on Friday.”

It is put to him that Sligo came into the game bottom of the league and with just two wins all season, and that United really should be taking care of business against that kind of opposition.

“Yeah, but in fairness, it’s probably a credit to the league the Sligo are the bottom side. That’s being honest with you, you know, they play good football and they’re a damn good side, and whoever goes down will be a damn good side,” he said.

You would never accuse the United camp of taking things for granted, but it is fair to say that at least a section of United’s support felt last Friday’s game should have been three points in the bank, and the fact they lost will remove any expectation of a win this Friday against a Cork City side just one place above last Friday’s vanquishers in the table.

United were luck to take a point from their trip to Turners Cross back on the first night of the season, twice coming from behind to snatch a 2-2 draw, with the second equaliser coming from Vince Borden 10 minutes from time.

The US midfielder remains sidelined through injury, along with Garry Buckley and Jimmy Keohane, and United have sorely missed their presence in this run of four defeats.

City might be eight points behind United and on their own shocker of a run – three defeats on the spin, five games without a win, two wins all season – but they were 2-1 up away to St Pats last Friday as the game ticked into the 90th minute before the home side struck two late goals; a week earlier, Derry City got their winner in the 82nd minute; and in the first of that trio of defeats, Drogheda scored five minutes into injury-time from the penalty spot in a  3-2 win over City.

“We look to Cork, that will be another handful. If we are right, we’ll be okay, but we’ve got to get right, we’ve just got to knuckle down and get us right for Cork,” Horgan said.

Pictured: Galway United’s Killian Brouder tries to flick-on a Dave Hurley corner in the first-half but Sligo Rovers’ Reece Hutchinson is on hand to clear. Photo: Joe O’Shaughnessy.