League Report: Galway United 2 - 0 Cobh Ramblers

Paul Corcoran reports from Eamonn Deacy Park

Galway United continued their excellent run of form with a fifth consecutive win on Friday night when they defeated Cobh Ramblers 2-0 at Eamonn Deacy Park.

For the second week in a row, it was Ruairí Keating and Wilson Waweru who provided the goals with the strikers netting their eighth and fifth goals of the season respectively.

Conor Kearns will be another happy member of the Galway squad with the goalkeeper claiming his fourth clean sheet in a row as part of this fantastic run the Tribesmen are on.

John Caulfield made no changes to the starting line-up for the visit of Cobh Ramblers with the same eleven that defeated UCD 2-0 in Dublin last weekend starting the game.

Stuart Ashton, on the other hand, switched up his starting line-up after their loss to Bray Wanderers in their previous game with Pierce Phillips, Cian Murphy and Killian Cooper being replaced by Naythan Coleman, James McCarthy and Danny O’Connell.

Neither side had a single shot on goal in the opening ten minutes, but the game finally showed a glimmer of life in the 12^th minute when Mikey Place stole the ball from Darren Murphy and stormed into the Cobh Ramblers box before being fouled by James McCarthy to win the penalty.

Ruairí Keating scored twice against Ramblers when the sides met earlier in the season and he was the man to open the scoring on Friday night with the striker shooting to the right side of Sean Barron’s goal, the goalkeeper got a hand to it but couldn’t prevent the ball from rattling the net.

The visitors recorded their first shot with twenty minutes gone in the first half when captain Ian Turner took on a free-kick from long-range, the midfielder’s effort was placed too close to Conor Kearns in the Galway goal to cause too much trouble for the home side however.

United went close twice more in the first half with Keating striking the ball on target after winning a misplaced pass in midfield in the 23^rd minute and then Killian Brouder clipped the crossbar when he met a Conor McCormack free-kick with his head in the 38^th minute.

Wilson Waweru got rewarded for an evening spent thanklessly trying to hold the ball up when Mikey Place won the ball in the Galway half after the re-start.

The ball worked its way to the striker and he manged to hold onto the ball on the right of the box before firing off across goal and just nicking the inside of the far post with the ball to double the Tribesmen’s lead and claim his fifth goal of the season.

Ramblers struggled to find the target throughout but they did go close in the 81^st minute when second half substitute Fionn Duggan won the ball in the  Galway box before blasting a ball across the box, it pinged around the area before fellow substitute Killian Cooper pulled the ball just wide of the goal.

Conor Kearns pulled off a great save five minutes from time to hold on to his clean sheet when a Darren Murphy free-kick went over the top of the defence with Cooper got on the end once again but the goalkeeper showed his bravery to make the close range save.

Galway United: Ruairi Keating (c); Conor Kearns; Conor O'Keeffe, Maurice Nugent, Alex Murphy (Stephen Walsh 74), Killian Brouder (Joe Gorman 81), Gary Boylan; Mikey Place (Shane Doherty 59), Conor McCormack, David Hurley (Shane Duggan 81); Wilson Waweru (Padraic Cunningham 74).

Subs not used: Mikie Rowe, Thomas Oluwa, Christopher Horgan, Luke Denison.

Booked: Conor McCormack (85).

Cobh Ramblers: Sean Barron; Ben O'Riordan, Charlie Lyons, Lee Devitt Molloy, Nathan Coleman; Ian Turner, Stephen O'Leary, Darren Murphy (Killian Cooper 73), Jake Hegarty (Ciaran Griffin 57); Danny O'Connell, James McCarthy (Fionn Duggan 52).

Subs not used: Nathan O'Connell, Cian Murphy, Luke Kennedy, Alex Hill, Corey Chambers, Darryl Walsh.

Booked: Ian Turner (14) ,James McCarthy (12) ,Danny O'Connell (36) Lee Devitt Molloy (76).

Referee: Robert Dowling

Attendance: 200

extratime.com Player of the Match: David Hurley (Galway United).