Waterford FC 0

Galway United 1

Keith Kelly at the RSC

A thoroughly professional performance from Galway United saw them strike the first blow in the race for league honours this season as Vince Borden’s first-half goal saw them open a five-point gap between themselves and Waterford with just three games played.

It would be utterly stupid to write-off the title chances of everyone bar those two – Bray Wanderers, for example, look to have found their mojo again after a hugely disappointing 2022 – but most of the money has gone on United and Waterford for the league, so in that sense, United took an early psychological edge against a side that beat them in the First Division play-off final last season.

It wasn’t just the win, but the manner in which it was achieved: the visitors were utterly dominant in the first-half, and deserved more than the lone goal they scored; while the second-half saw them smother the efforts of the home side to get back into the game, with Brendan Clarke called to make just one save of note.

The one concern so far this season might be on the scoring front: three of United’s four goals have come from set-pieces, and none have been scored by a player in an attacking role, with Vince Borden bagging his third goal of the season on Friday night, to go with Rob Slevin’s goal against Treaty the previous week.

“What do you want, Keith?,” Ollie Horgan laughed after last Friday’s game when asked was there a concern about United’s inability to convert their chances in the opening three games.

“It is what it is, we have managed to find a way the last couple of weeks, and we need to find a way next Friday. We had several chances and it just wouldn’t go in. It was decided on a set-piece, the same with last week which was decided on a set-piece, they are huge also,” he said.

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

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