1 March 2024; Winning goalscorer Danny Mullen of Derry City celebrates after the SSE Airtricity Men's Premier Division match between Derry City and St Patrick's Athletic at The Ryan McBride Brandywell Stadium in Derry. Photo by Ben McShane/Sportsfile
DERRY CITY
On Friday, March 29 at 7:45 p.m., Derry City will welcome Galway United at the Ryan McBride Brandywell in an attempt to go back to winning ways.
Before their match a fortnight ago, when they traveled to Dublin to play Bohemians, who had recently parted ways with manager Declan Devine, the Candystripes had not lost in the Premier Division.
Derry may have succumbed to the Bohemians’ “no-manager” bounce that evening when they were defeated 2-1 at Dalymount Park.
By the 77th minute, Dayle Rooney and former Derry City player James Akintunde had given the Gypsies a two-goal advantage. In the 79th minute, Ronan Boyce of City scored what would turn out to be a consolation goal.
At this early stage of the season, Ruaidhrí Higgins will be hoping Dundalk can cut the gap against the Reds in their encounter at Oriel Park. Currently, they lie five points off the top of the league behind Shelbourne, who are playing flawlessly.
United Galway
Galway United’s somewhat successful return to the top division appears to be over as they have not won in their last four games.
Now that the issues have been addressed, let’s focus on some of the positives. Firstly, they have only lost by one goal in each of their three games to St Patrick’s Athletic, Shels, and Rovers.
On the defensive, they appear to be generally solid, but things get complicated when they move forward.
They appeared to handle Shamrock Rovers quite well over the majority of their most recent encounter at Eamonn Deacy Park; in fact, it appeared as though they were closing in on the Hoops by the end of the contest.
Rovers broke through the Tribesmen’s defense in the 84th minute thanks to a careless play at the back, and Johnny Kenny’s strong strike in the 84th minute gave Rovers their first victory of the year.
When he addressed the media following the match, assistant manager Ollie Horgan said as much: “It’s a very quiet changing room in there which is a good thing, they’re hurting, we’re all hurting.”
However, that is the main focus of this division and what it is all about. We have narrowly lost to Shamrock Rovers at home, as well as to Pat’s. We have also narrowly lost to Shelburne, all one nil.
And perhaps that’s what makes this league so good and so unrelenting. You are disciplined if they temporarily shut off, as we did there tonight.
In terms of team news, Colm Horgan hasn’t played since their game against Shelbourne, Wassime Aouachria hasn’t been in the starting lineup since preseason injury, and Garry Buckley hasn’t been seen since the season’s opening night.
