St Patrick’s Athletic 2

Galway United 0

GALWAY United produced arguably their finest 45 minutes of football in the second-half of this clash in Inchicore on Friday night, but in the end they had nothing to show for it as two first-half goals saw the home side claim all three points.

By my count, the visitors had 17 efforts on goal in that second-half, with the home side failing to manage even one, but the difference was that the title favourites made two of their nine first-half efforts count.

They deserved their half-time lead as well. United looked a little unsure of themselves, and Pats took full advantage. It’s not that United played particularly badly, more a case of them showing the home side a little too much respect, and they paid the price for that.

As expected, United were forced into two changes to the side that started in the win over Drogheda United a week earlier, with both Greg Cunningham and Vince Borden out with hamstring injuries.

The two players that replaced them in that 2-1 win, Garry Buckley and Stephen Walsh, started in their place, which meant Rob Slevin shuffling over to the left side of the three-man defence, with Buckley on the right; while Walsh joined Moses Dyer up front as Pat Hickey dropped back into the ‘10’ role.

However, Jamie Lennon and Christ Forrester had the home side purring in the opening half. Aidan Keena was back in the starting XI after an injury absence, and he looked to mark his return to the side with a goal, but fired high and wide in the seventh minute, and dragged an effort across goal and wide 60 seconds later.

Slevin and Brouder had to combine to deny the Pats dangerman in the 19th minute as the game took on something of a ‘backs v forwards’ drill you’d see on the training ground, and Mason Melia should have done better than heading wide from six yards out in the 19th minute.

Then, having scored a candidate for goal of the season against Bohs in Dalymount Park back in March, Dyer submitted an entry for miss of the season on the half-hour mark in a rare first-half attack from United.

Buckley played a brilliant ball over the top for Jeannot Esua to latch onto just before the endline. He took a touch before crossing into the six yard box, the ball deflecting off both Sean Hoare and Joe Redmond to fall into the path of Dyer, but the problem was Dyer was also falling in his effort to connect, and made only the slightest of contact from a yard out, and Anag got down to smother it before the ball trickled over the line.

Pictured: Galway United’s Patrick Hickey and Cillian Tollett battling for possession with James McManus of Bohemians during Monday’s Premier Division clash at Eamonn Deacy Park. Photo: Joe O’Shaughnessy.