John Caulfield: 'Obviously there was the sending off at half time, but we felt at half time we should have gone in one nil up'

Paul Corcoran reports from Eamonn Deacy Park

The two sides most hotly tipped to win promotion this season faced each other on Friday night as Galway United hosted Shelbourne at Eamonn Deacy Park.

Neither side could make the breakthrough on the night and the sides played out a 0-0 draw, despite the Reds being down to ten men for over half of the game after Glen McAuley’s sending off.

Despite his side’s failure to find the net, with The Tribesmen going close on more than one occasion, Galway manager John Caulfield was in relaxed form speaking after the game.

“I know we played a very experienced side,  and you could see in the first 25 minutes they had a lot of influence on the officials,” Caulfield told the press after Friday night’s game.

“We have a new team and probably, first game, for twenty minutes we didn’t settle down.

“Certainly for the second part of the first half we had the one chance on the line, how the lads didn’t put it in I don’t know and Ruairí had a shot that he put wide when, on another day he would have probably scored it.

“Obviously there was the sending off at half time but we felt at half time we should have gone in 1-0 up.

“The second half they sat in and made it very compact and at the end of the day Brendan Clarke makes two saves.

“We had the opportunities but we didn’t take them and that’s why it’s disappointing but overall it’s the first game of the season, there’s a long way to go.”

The Tribesmen had nine new signings in their starting line-up and the former Cork City boss believes there is more to come from his players with nerves possibly playing a factor on the first night of the season.

“There was probably a bit of nerves as well, some of the lads probably didn’t play as well as they can which is understandable on the opening night, but I thought we got to grips with the game after about 30 minutes and we looked good.

“They defended well, but we still had opportunities. You get the goal and go one nil up and it’s a different game.

“They were defending for the point and fair play to them. We have a lot of work to do but the lads have done great and we move on to next week.”

The First Division will look that bit different this season. Athlone Town are potentially a different beast this season with the Midlands side nabbing a last minute equaliser against UCD on Friday night.

Adrian Carberry’s side are next up for John Caulfield’s men and the manager is already sounding a note of caution ahead of next Friday night.

“There’s about six or seven clubs that all think they’re going to go up. Athlone have brought in and invested in a lot of new players.

“With the opening two or three games of a season it takes a while for things to settle down and certainly for us it’s a work in progress.

“We’ve worked really hard and tonight some of the lads didn’t play as well as they could but overall we still had chances to win the match, if we came off and didn’t have chances we’d be more disappointed.”

The Tribesmen travel to Athlone Town Stadium next Friday night as they continue their First Division campaign (kick-off 7.45pm).