JOHN Caulfield was rueing the fact that his side’s home game with Shamrock Rovers on the Bank Holiday Monday just gone ended up being postponed, but he wasn’t about to say no to the extra couple of days it gave his side to prepare for the trip North this Friday to take on Derry City (7.45pm).

International call-ups for Johnny Kenny and Conan Noonan to the Republic of Ireland U-21 side; for Markus Poom to the senior Estonia side for a friendly and Baltic Cup semi-final; and for Roberto Lopes for Cape Verde’s World Cup qualifiers against Cameroon and Libya, meant Shamrock Rovers sought – and was granted – a postponement on Monday’s game.

That game was heading towards being a sell-out – Rovers had already sold their allocation of away tickets before the plug was pulled on the game. After losing 2-1 away to St Patrick’s Athletic last Friday night, you get the feeling United could have done with getting back on the pitch as soon as possible to banish the demons of that defeat, but instead they got a couple of extra days training on the astro pitch in Drom to prepare for a similar surface that is in use at the Ryan McBride Brandywell.

“The fact the game was at home and a bank holiday, and the fact it was Rovers that were coming to town, the early ticket sales indicated it would be a sell-out – that’s probably what is disappointing, but we can’t control that, it gives us a full week to prepare for Derry.

“We are looking forward to the game aganist Derry. We know how good they are, they are challenging for the league title, it is important that we don’t give away the goals we gave away [against St Pats], if we can get back to being defensively solid and then see can we create chances up there, and I think we can,” he said.

He not only thinks United can, he’ll know they can: on United’s last visit to the banks of the Foyle, Stephen Walsh came off the bench to score the only goal of the game four minutes from time to show that United very much belong in the top flight.

“We are not here to make up the numbers, we are here to put Galway United on the map. Ever since the start of the season, we were viewed as relegation candidates and we want to prove that wrong.

Pictured: Galway United Head Coach John Caulfield whose team face a tough task away to Derry City on Friday night.