Kerry FC 1

Galway United 4

JOHN Caulfield admits his Galway United side were somewhat complacent in the opening half of their first visit to Tralee last Friday night, and says David Hurley’s equaliser just before half-time was the kick in the backside his side needed to jolt them back on track in a game which they eventually won with ease.

United were rampant when winning 9-1 in the first meeting between the sides in Eamonn Deacy Park last month, but it was a very different story at Mounthawk Park on Friday as the visitors were close to awful in the opening 45 minutes and looked to be heading into the second-half in arrears.

Hurley dug the side out of a hole in first-half injury-time when scoring for the fourth successive game, and United were a side transformed in the second-half when a Colm Horgan rocket was bookended by a pair of Stephen Walsh goals as United made it 10 wins from 10.

United were forced into one change for the game, with Maurice Nugent coming in for Conor O’Keefe, who was ruled out through illness after feeling unwell for most of the week, but there was the boost of seeing both Regan Donelon and Ronan Manning back on the bench for United.

The visitors also made one change from their 1-0 defeat away to Waterford the previous week, with Sean Kennedy coming into the side on the left of an attacking three, with Sean O’Connell the one to make way.

That’s seemed to be bordering on an attacking lunacy the league’s newcomers had also shown back on the Dyke Road last month, but this time they also stacked the defence, deploying an unusual 5-2-3 set-up, which suggested that they were going to try and hit United on the counter attack while parking not only the bus, but the bus-shelter and bus depot in front of their own goal.

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

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