FIRST DIVISION
Barry does it again as Utd pull off surprise away win
Tribesmen chalk up first league success in 13 outings since middle of May
CABINTEELY FC 0
GALWAY UNITED 1
DAIRE WALSH
IN STRADBROOK
CONOR Barry’s sublime first-half strike helped Galway United to record a superb victory over Cabinteely in the SSE Airtricity League First Division at Stradbrook last Friday night.
This was the Tribesmen’s first league win in all of 13 games – dating back to a May 17 success at the expense of Longford Town. Alan Murphy’s men had to dig deep at various junctures in the play, but ultimately held out to claim the scalp of the south Dubliners.
Following the previous Sunday’s morale-boosting FAI Cup win over Collinstown on the far side of the Sky Blue city, Galway were always likely to keep changes at a minimum. First-choice attacker Vinny Faherty, however, was ruled out through injury, leading to a significant re-shuffle in the United starting line-up.
Marc Ludden was promoted in his place and was deployed – along with Christopher Horgan – as a wing-back in a rigid Galway defence. Conor Melody was pushed further forward, while Barry and Stephen Christopher offered additional support in the final-third.
In a lively start to the contest, both teams enjoyed their fair share of possession. Barry broke at pace into the Cabinteely half and looked to pick out the galloping Maurice Nugent on the right-flank.
However, the retreating opposition rearguard cut out his attempted pass and proceeded to increase the pressure on the Tribesmen as the first-quarter progressed. The pacy Yuta Sasaki was combining to good effect with Robert Manley, albeit the Galway defence largely held their own.
Paul Fox’s low effort forced a save out of Galway’s Kevin Horgan, before Cabinteely were subsequently left stunned on 19 minutes. Barry was the match-winner for Galway in last week’s victory at Whitehall and he once again produced a magic moment for the visitors.
Spotting that Cabinteely skipper Stephen McGuinness was off his line, Barry got the better of the experienced netminder with an audacious chip. This sent the Galway bench into raptures and even though it was early days, a fifth league win of 2019 was suddenly within their grasp.
This threw down the gauntlet to Pat Devlin’s hosts, who were aiming to keep their promotion challenge alive with another triumph. Manley and Sasaki both went close to securing an equaliser as the action developed – the latter having his effort cleared off the line.
Given how desperately Cabinteely needed the three points, an onslaught was anticipated on the resumption. Nevertheless, with their Metropolitan rivals looking to commit players forward, there was going to be opportunities for Galway to counter-attack.
Indeed, they almost doubled their one-goal interval cushion on 49 minutes. Barry once again spotted Nugent in an advanced position, but McGuinness beat the United midfielder to the ball on this occasion.
Galway suffered a minor set-back seven minutes after the restart when central defender Killian Brouder was forced off with an injury. His place was taken by Cian Murphy, who fitted seamlessly into United’s defensive structure.
The ever-willing Nugent was proving to be a powerful outlet for Galway and his header, off a Ludden free-kick, once again propelled McGuinness into action. Despite being on the back-foot for large spells, Galway remained largely comfortable at the back.
Cabinteely became decidedly frustrated moving towards the final-quarter and were forced to keep close tabs on the dangerous Barry. The home team persevered with their challenge and Fox fired just past the target on the stroke of 80 minutes.
Nugent has earlier been booked for a heavy tackle on Sasaki and then limped off to make way for Ivan Gamara in the closing stages. Nine minutes of stoppage-time kept Galway on tenterhooks, but they negotiated the additional minutes with flying colours – making it a memorable trip back to the west in the process.
CABINTEELY FC: S McGuinness; D Blackbyrne (C Keeley 72), K Manahan (L Clucas 57), J Tuite, K Knight; K Dalton, V Labutis, Z O’Neill (A Aspil 91), P Fox; R Manley, Y Sasaki.
GALWAY UNITED: K Horgan; C Horgan (D Higgins 73), J Lynch, S Walsh, K Brouder (C Murphy 52), M Ludden; C Barry, M Nugent (I Gamara 82), J Collins, S Christopher; C Melody.
Referee: A Patchell (Dublin).