Galway United fans are being urged to show patience this Friday when top meet bottom at Eamonn Deacy Park as United welcome the league’s newest club, Kerry FC, for their maiden visit to the Dyke Road venue (7.45pm).

The Tribesmen have made an impressive start to the season, winning their first three games for only the third time in the club’s history, which leaves them with the only 100% record in the division after just three rounds of games.

There is a lot of pressure on United to win promotion this season, having been beaten in the play-offs in the last three seasons, and to be fair to the perennial title favourites, they have started the campaign in style, recording wins away to Finn Harps and Waterford, and at home to Treaty United.

The new-look defence looks rock-solid; the only goal United conceded was from a penalty against Finn Harps in the 2-1 win on the opening day of the season, and the experience brought to the side by Regan Donelon, Brendan Clarke, Colm Horgan, and Rob Slevin can’t be underestimated.

They have almost 900 League of Ireland appearances between them, and when you add Killian Brouder to the mix, it is little wonder that United have looked so comfortable at the back in these early stages of the season.

The early concerns are further up the pitch: of the four goals United have scored, three have been from set-pieces, and not one has come from any of the attacking positions, but you get the same number of points for a 1-0 win as you do a 3-0 or 4-0 win.

It would be more of a concern if United were not creating any chances: by my count, they have had 30 efforts on target, and a further 12 attempts which were off target, in their three games to date, while on the flip side, they have ‘allowed’ just nine shots on target in their three games, with Harps, Treaty, and Waterford combining for just another seven efforts that were off target.

There has been some terrace talk that United’s front men will have a chance to full their boots on Friday, but assistant manager Ollie Horgan is warning against any such thoughts.

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

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