Friendly Report: Cobh Ramblers 0 - 2 Galway United

Two second half goals saw Galway United wrap up their pre-season with a 2-0 win over First Division Cobh Ramblers at St Colman’s Park on Saturday evening but it wasn’t always pretty on the eye.

 

The pitch at the hilltop venue wasn’t in any condition to encourage attractive football. The surface was heavy and uneven despite having been rolled during the week and it was clear from the beginning that the players were in for a game in which physical commitment would be important.

 

The opening half hour produced almost nothing to write about and when, on 23 minutes, Conor Melody stepped inside his defender and shot safely into the arms of Cobh ‘keeper Paul Hunt, there was a collective scramble for writing implements in the press area.

 

The commitment was there but it was hard for either team to generate any meaningful patterns of play. Gary Shanahan and Conor Melody managed to put in bright performances on the Galway flanks while the respective midfields worked hard to get and hold possession but misplaced passes, interceptions and firm tackling were the dominant aspects of the game.

 

The best passage of play in the first 45 minutes was provided by Shanahan who put in a 50 yard sprint down the right touchline before pulling the ball back for Padraic Cunningham 15 yards out. Only a terrific block from Craig Donnellan denied the Galway striker.

 



The second half saw Galway emerge as the better team and seven minutes in Shanahan should have done better when he volleyed high over the bar after good approach work by Cunningham. One minute later Vinny Faherty worked some space for substitute Kevin Devaney to shoot across goal and wide of the far post.

 

A Galway goal seemed inevitable and it came on 57 minutes when Marc Ludden burst into the box and drilled a ball across the goalmouth which deflected into the net off Cobh defender Anthony O’Donnell/

 

In midfield, Alex Byrne and second half sub Paul Sinnott were more successful than their Cobh counterparts at getting their team moving forward and Galway were providing far more opportunities for their front two. Cobh’s front pair of Stephen Christopher and Matthew Whelan (both introduced at half time) worked hard without anything like the same service.

 



Cunningham turned Lee Grace on 64 minutes but Hunt was out quickly to narrow the striker’s sight of goal and kept his team in it with a fine save. There were some promising moments at the other end too, particularly when Cobh centre-back Chris McCarthy forced his way into more forward positions but the home team were mainly limited to shots from distance, none of which overly tested Ciaran Nugent in the Galway goal.

 

Galway’s second came with just nine minutes to play. Sub Jesse Devers played an excellent through-ball for Cunningham who stepped on before thrashing the ball through the legs of Hunt and into the net.

 

An afternoon of toil ended with a worrying injury to Cunningham who left the field in added time despite there being no more Galway subs left to take his place. But Shane Keegan will have been reasonably pleased to see his team impose their better quality in the second period. Meanwhile, Stephen Henderson’s side march towards their league opener with Wexford having scored just one goal in their five pre-season matches.

 

 

Cobh Ramblers: Paul Hunt; Ben O’Riordain, Cian Kingston, Chris McCarthy, Anthony O’Donnell; Charlie Fleming (Kyle McNamara 79), Craig Donnellan, Jason Abbott, In Mylod; Karl Caulfield (Stephen Christopher 46); Dean Swords (Matthew Whelan 46).

Subs Not Used: Adam Mylod, Michael Sadys, Ryan Hogan, Scott McCarthy, James McSweeney, Jonathan Creamer, Shane Lowth.

Booked: J Abbott (86)

 

Galway United: Ciaran Nugent; Colm Horgan, Lee Grace, Stephen Folan (Aaron Conway 65), Marc Ludden (Gary Kinneen 69); Gary Shanahan (Declan Sharkey 65), Alex Byrne, David Cawley (Paul Sinnott 46), Conor Melody (Kevin Devaney 46); Vinny Faherty (Jesse Devers 75), Padraic Cunningham.

Subs Not Used: Conor Winn.

Booked: None.

 

Referee: David Keeler.

Attendance: 250 (estimate).

Extratime Man of the Match: Alex Byrne (Galway United).