GALWAY United will hope to hit all the right notes in their first home game of the season this coming Friday night as they bid to avoid the dreaded ‘second album syndrome’.

In the music world, the ‘second album syndrome’ refers to a band or artist who struggles to replicate their initial success, often due to a change in musical style, and last Friday night’s change of style by Galway United to start their second season in the top-flight almost proved their undoing.

The Tribesmen abandoned their favoured 4-2-3-1 set-up from last season to play with a 3-man defensive line in Turners Cross, but they never looked comfortable in it, with the home side often finding yawning gaps of space which to exploit.

Cork City didn’t take full advantage – United manager John Caulfield admitted after the game that his side could have lost “3, 4, 5-1” – but you can’t imagine title favourites St Patrick’s Athletic failing to take full advantage if such open acreage presents itself in Eamonn Deacy Park this Friday (7.45pm).

“We just want Galway people to come out and get behind the team because the players, they’re honest, they’re great lads,” Caulfield said after last Friday night’s 2-2 draw in Turners Cross.

“Another night here you could be going home and you could have lost 3, 4, even 5-1 if fellas went hiding, but we don’t have those guys, we have guys that’ll stick at it. They kept going and they showed a lot of grit when things were going against them,” he said.

United are enjoying a surge in popularity: Eamonn Deacy Park saw some of its biggest crowds in years last season, and one of the club’s directors noted in Cork on Friday that there were a lot of new faces in the away end at Turners Cross.

Caulfield has been persistent in his call for support, and his insistence on the difference it makes to the players, something the players attest to as well. He wants people to make an even greater effort this Friday to get to the game in person, rather than opt for the seat at home or in the pub to watch it on TV – the game is being televised live on Virgin Media.

“We have been working for the last few years on trying to get new people to follow the team, get the big crowds coming to Terryland, and they have been through the work of yourself and Galway Bay FM promoting the club, and the team doing well.

“It is our first home game, we want a big crowd, we want to sell-out. They are one of the title favourites, and we need a full house. It was a hell of an atmosphere in Turners Cross, and we want to create the same in Eamonn Deacy Park,” he said.

Pictured: HAVING A BALL! Rob Slevin of Galway United gets close up and personal with Cork City’s Ruairí Keating during Friday’s Premier Division tie at Turners Cross.