John Caulfield: 'We didn’t do enough and we didn’t penetrate enough'

Caulfield's men drew 1-1 with Treaty United on Friday night. Credit: Gerry Shanahan (ETPhotos)

Paul Corcoran reports from Eamonn Deacy Park

It was another disappointing night for Galway United on Friday night as they had to come from behind to secure a 1-1 draw with League newcomers Treaty United at Eamonn Deacy Park.

The Tribesmen have now failed to win in all three of the games they’ve played in the First Division so far this season and Galway manager John Caulfield expressed his disappointment after the game.

“It was a tough night, Treaty are good and they’ve earned their point and they work hard. We probably dominated possession but they were very dangerous and got a good goal,” Caulfield said, speaking to the press after Friday night’s game.

“We’re finding in the last couple of games, we’re chasing from being a goal down.

“We had opportunities to score, Tadhg Ryan made two very good saves, our subs came on and made a difference and it was good for Wilson [Waweru] to get the goal.

“It’s a tough game and every game you go out to if you don’t work as hard as you can work, and tonight some of our lads were off form and that’s disappointing.”

Treaty United are in good form in their first League of Ireland season with Friday’s result meaning they’ve now gone four games unbeaten this season and Caulfield had plenty of praise for the Limerick side.

“Tonight, it was one of those games where we found ourselves a goal  down early on and we’re chasing a match.

“In fairness to Treaty they’re very disciplined and composed, they sit in and give you the ball.



“You’re nearly playing against 9 in their half and they hit you on the counter, and they’re effective at that.

“We didn’t do enough and we didn’t penetrate enough. We found it difficult to break them down and we weren’t as sharp as we hoped we would have been in the first half.

“In the second half I thought we were better, certainly that instance where we had two very good chances but at the moment we’re just not scoring goals.

“In fairness to Wilson, it’s the second day he’s come on and scored and we got a point out of it.”

The Tribesmen are struggling to find goals this season, and creating chances is proving extremely difficult for the west of Ireland club.

After three games only Wilson Waweru has goals for the club, with the striker leaving it late to add to his tally on Friday night when he scored in the 93rd minute.



Caulfield made a big call for the game against Treaty too, when he opted for a change from the 3 man defence he had deployed in the first two games to having 4 across the back.

“We do an awful lot of work at training, playing between the lines, overlapping and creating chances but in the games there’s pressure on players to play and perform and sometimes the pressure is off at training,” he said.

“It is difficult when you go behind so it was disappointing from that aspect. We had a lot of the ball but we just didn’t beat the final man and that’s an area we need to work on more.

“We thought we might get at them more, we wanted two wide players and two wingers to try and see could we create more opportunities and penetrate more and we did a lot of work at training,” the manager explained.

“You prepare that way and we thought it would happen but tonight it just didn’t happen that way.

“It was a different type of game because we felt that Treaty play very much on the counter and they’re very good at it and we felt like we would get a lot of the possession and we were trying to see if we could get it wide and get in around the back of them but they defended well and we probably didn’t do enough at times.”

    About Paul Corcoran

    Paul Corcoran is an experienced writer and journalist and has contributed to various publications including the Galway United match programme Maroon View. He spends much of his time covering the fortunes of Galway United's teams … View Full Profile