Galway United 0

Shamrock Rovers 1

TO Benjamin Franklin’s famous saying, we can add a third certainty in life to sit alongside death and taxes: Shamrock Rovers winning in Eamonn Deacy Park.

A Tuam man bagged the only goal of the game on Friday night, but unfortunately for the home side, the Sham was playing for Shams, with Rory Gaffney’s goal four minutes the second half ending Galway United’s unbeaten start to the season.

It also made it a scarcely believable 13 league wins on the spin at the Dyke Road venue for the Hoops, 12 of which have been by a single goal margin, making each defeat even more sickening than the one that preceded it.

That was certainly the case on Friday night: United were in a good place going into the game, sitting joint top of the table and the only side still unbeaten seven games into the new campaign.

Rovers were there for the taking, having made an almost customary slow start to the season. They were without last season’s tormentor-in-chief, Johnny Kenny, who has gone back to Glasgow Celtic after a loan spell which saw him bag an 84th minute equaliser in Tallaght and an 85th minute winner in Eamonn Deacy Park in meetings between the sides last season.

The home team certainly started like they meant business, enjoying the better of things in an entertaining first-half that seemed to fly by; but when an uncharacteristic defensive error four minutes into the second-half gifted the Hoops the lead, the self-belief just seemed to drain from the home side as Rovers saw out the game without too much fuss.

It was Gaffney’s first start for the Hoops in almost a year: the last time he started a game was in the 1-1 draw between these two sides in the Tallaght Stadium in April of last year, before an ankle injury ended his season.

He had made five substitute appearances for Rovers this season before Friday night, and he repaid Stephen Bradley’s decision to start him by being in the right place to tap into the empty net after Evan Watts came for, but missed, a corner-kick just after half-time.

The game was preceded by a minute’s applause in memory of the late John Herrick, the former player/manager of Galway Rovers who guided the club to its first-ever domestic final, the 1980/81 League Cup.

The moment was teed-up by a beautiful tribute penned by Bernie O’Connell, which ended with the moving invitation to join a final salute on the pitch that Herrick graced four decades ago. John’s sons, Paul and the former United player, Mark, were in the stand to witness the tribute paid to their father.

Pictured: Bobby Burns heads clear against Shamrock Rovers last Friday night. Photo: Joe O’Shaughnessy.