Match review written by Matt O’Rourke
Another strong win for Damien Duff’s against Galway sees us go top of the league. Another 3 points for us, and a continuation to this phenomenal start to a season. Galway United didn’t go down easily though, as they did give us a run for our money.
Going into the match I felt we were very strong again. The run of games we had before just told me we would win the game, but I wouldn’t have thought Galway would’ve put up as much of a fight as they did.
From the get go Galway we’re on top of us constantly.
Mark Coyle gets booked in the third minute for a fair challenge but we always knew Rob Hennesy would give us a tough time. Up until about the 11th minute we just couldn’t get a proper possession going or a good string of passes and to be honest it was terrible but we did turn it around.
At around halfway through the 14th minute we make a great attack , Jarvis strikes one from outside the box and it goes past the keeper but hits the right post and goes out to the left side of the goal where John Martin is waiting and capitalises on it , scores his first goal for the Reds, 1-0 to Shelbourne. I said in my preview that I believed the likes of John Martin and Dean Williams would have an impact on the match, and I think anyone could’ve gotten this right. John looks very strong and will be important for our season.
There wasn’t any notable events after his goal to be deadly honest, a few decent attacks from both sides but morning formidable. The rest of that half went quickly and it was half time before you knew it. Reflecting on the first half, I thought we could’ve been stronger, especially at the start which was the most worrying part.
Let’s talk about our second half performance:
At around the 50th minute Jarvis goes down and it looks worrying. He receives treatment and plays on. At around half way through the 56th minute we see Ed McCarthy go down, and we hear a cheer from the Riverside. He was booed throughout the game and to be honest every bit of stick he got was deserved. Paddy Barret gets a yellow in the 57th. Now in the 58th minute a Galway player is on the floor, but Hennesy doesn’t call anything, that Galway player proceeds to purposely grab the ball and yet Rob decided this was ok. Of course it makes sense since we had one of the incapable referees again at our game.
In the 61st, Duffer takes off Ledwidge and throws in Wilson to replace him. A few Attacks from both sides take place and in the 72nd minute we see Duffer look to the bench again, this time a double sub , John Martin and Evan Caffrey come off for Sully and Dean Williams. 74th minite sees Dean Williams go into Rob’s book.
Now in the 82nd we see Shane Farrell come on for Liam Burt. In the 83rd we see a fantastic opportunity where Shane Farrel is nearly past the whole defensive line, but a Galway defender fouls him and he goes down. Of course it was only a yellow card according to Rob, and this was actually so bad of a tackle that Shane gets badly injured and is taken off the field for further assistance. That leaves us with ten men. We later see Shane walk off the field and back into the changing room in a sling, which was very sad to see.
We got a good few set pieces, especially since there was 7 minutes of added time. But due to us being a man down because of injury, we had to play it safe and play defensive.
Overall, I agree with the selection of Gav Molloy for MOTM. His performance was great. His defensive ability was shown throughout the game with some great challenges and his contribution to the overall game was elite. His skill is not to be underestimated.
Reflecting on the match , we could’ve played a lot better, and we were lucky to have Conor Kearns in goal and a solid defence. Going into Bohs, we need to not be like against Galway, we definitely need to be strong from the start, but that’s not to worry about.
To conclude, another home game with an absolutely dreadful referee who should be sacked. Thank you for reading.
UTFR