GALWAY United assistant manager Ollie Horgan says he isn’t in the slightest bit insulted at any apparent lack of respect being shown to the Tribesmen this season.

Last year’s First Division champions are coming off second best when it comes to getting the rub of the green from officials: Eoghan O’Shea, a soldier by profession, seems in particular to have his sights set on United, having twice disallowed goals for the Tribesmen this season, most recently in the final minute of last week’s draw at home to Bohs.

“People have bad games, as we do, we had one last weekend [aganist Shelbourne], but it seems when we see him, he doesn’t come up to the standard we expect in this division. Maybe our luck might turn, not with that official, but maybe our luck will change,” he said of O’Shea.

Bohs manager Alan Reynolds was heard to suggest after the final whistle last Thursday night that his side had been the only team trying to play football in the 1-1 draw between the sides, but Horgan gives a loud laugh when he is asked if there is a lack of respect for the men from the west this season.

“I have been insulted many times in my life, and John [Caulfield, the United manager] is the same. It rolls off you, I remember when I was 18, I wanted to be popular and my mother said to me ‘would you ever cop on’, and by Christ she was right.

“I have had that all my life, ‘oh they don’t play’ and the next thing you turn good teams over. We ask questions of other teams, you saw that in the second-half [against Bohs]. Yes, we hurt them at set pieces, free-kicks and corner kicks . . . their goal came from a corner kick,” he said, a possible twinkle in his eye over the fact that the, ahem, free-flowing Bohs had to rely on a set-piece for their goal.

“We played in their faces in the second-half, the disappointing thing was we didn’t do that in the first-half, and that is the downside of it. If we had done that in the first-half, maybe we would not be complaining about the disallowed goal and we’d have won it,” he said.

Maybe Reynolds is still smarting from the job United did on Waterford last season, when he was assistant manager to Keith Long at the RSC. The Tribesmen took 10 points from a possible 12 in the four league meetings between the sides in 2023, which included a 90th minute equaliser from Francely Lomboto in the RSC, and a 3-1 hiding of the visitors in Eamonn Deacy Park, with Waterford grabbing a consolation four minutes from time.

Pictured: Galway United’s Stephen Walsh shoots as Adam McDonnell of Bohemians challenges during Friday night’s Premier Division tie at Eamonn Deacy Park. Photos: Iain McDonald.