League Preview: Galway United -v- Cobh Ramblers

GALWAY UNITED

Galway United will be hoping to get back to winning ways when they host Cobh Ramblers at Eamonn Deacy Park on Friday night (kick-off 7.45pm).

The Tribesmen had their unbeaten start to the season ended at the hands of Longford Town last Friday night when they travelled to Bishopsgate.

United went ahead in the 11^th minute thanks to a Michael McDonnell own goal but goals from Sam Verdon and Darren Craven saw De Town claim the three points on the night.

Galway have a good record against Cobh in recent times and John Caulfield is looking for a better performance from his men on Friday night.

“It is a new challenge, we are looking forward to it and we are hoping for a big attendance on Friday night,” Caulfield told the club’s media team.

“Our performance wasn’t good last week so we have been working hard all week to improve that. We need to focus on ourselves to make sure we give a good performance.

“Cobh are always a side that cause teams problems – they work hard and are a very committed outfit. But for us, we need to get back to the level that we were playing in the previous four or five weeks.”

The game comes at an interesting time in the history of the club with the fan run Co-Op that owned the club voting this week to sell a majority share in the club to the Comer brothers the billionaire property developers who have been the main sponsors of the club since 2013.

COBH RAMBLERS

Ramblers have had a good rest coming into Friday night’s game as they were the idle team last weekend.

They do come into this game off the back of a loss however having lost 1-0 to Bray Wanderers two weeks ago.

“Galway are a good side with good players, but so are we. Once we hit form we can put it up to any team in the division,” manager Darren Murphy said, speaking to the club’s website.

“Each game is different and we’ve trained all week looking at Galway. We’re trying to improve each week and performances have been there, we just need to pick up the points to show that. We have a lot of games coming up and we’ll need the whole squad to step-up.”

In team news, Pierce Phillips and Darryl Walsh return from injury while Sean Barron and Breandán Frahill will be touch ang go as to whether they will be fit for the trip to Galway this weekend.

Referee: Alan Patchell

MATCH STATS

Galway began their season with a five game unbeaten run before their loss to Longford Town last weekend.

The side met three times last season and Galway won each of the meetings with the Rams failing to score in each game.

Ramblers haven’t beaten Galway United since September 2020 when they ran out 1-0 winners at Eamonn Deacy Park.

BETTING

Galway United 4/9; Draw 3/1; Cobh Ramblers 9/2.

PREDICTION

Galway United 2–0 Cobh Ramblers

Galway United

Injured: None.

Doubtful: None.

Suspended: None.

Cobh Ramblers

Injured: None.

Doubtful: Breandán Frahill, Sean Barron.

Suspended: Luke Desmond.