Galway United went down to a narrow defeat against Shamrock Rovers on the banks of the river Corrib on Monday evening, as two strikes from Gary Shaw saw the Tribesmen consigned to another defeat – their third in the league so far this campaign. Spea
Galway United went down to a narrow defeat against Shamrock Rovers on the banks of the river Corrib on Monday evening, as two strikes from Gary Shaw saw the Tribesmen consigned to another defeat – their third in the league so far this campaign.
Speaking to the media following the 2-1 defeat, Galway manager Shane Keegan was open and honest in his reaction, citing a mixture of frustration and pride with how things panned out.
“Maybe I’m wearing rose-tinted glasses – I thought we were good for long, long periods of the game, I really did, but I’m getting a little bit sick of moral victories at the moment,” Keegan said.
“It’s only so long that I can beat the drum that we’re playing well, we need to start playing poor and winning games, maybe that’s the way it’s going work out for us, but it’s tough at the moment – they [the players] gave absolutely every ounce of themselves.”
Keegan likes to watch large periods of matches away from the dugout, up on the elevated area just above the press box at Eamonn Deacy Park, and he gleaned some interesting insights from the defeat to Rovers from that position, particularly regarding Shaw’s second goal of the night.
“I couldn’t have been happier with the shape,” the Laois native commented.
“I was hopping mad at half time because five seconds before Shamrock Rovers score, Gavan Holohan is in oceans of space on the right-hand side.
“If we give the ball out to Holohan we actually have a really promising attack, and two poor pass selections meant we didn’t give it to Gavan and we’ve tried to play in an area that it’s not on to play and within five seconds the ball’s in the back of the net down the opposite side and that’s undone 45 minutes of really good work.”
While the errors were clear to the Tribesmen’s boss, so too were the positives and Keegan was happy to praise his charges for the way they worked hard in and out of possession, essentially when preventing Stephen Bradley’s charges from creating too much.
Outside of both goals, there was little to speak of from Rovers’ offensive point of view.
“If we play like that every week, we’ll accumulate lots of points, I do honestly believe that, but at the moment it’s tough and there’s no point saying otherwise,” Keegan offered.
“The stats will show that we had as many chances to score in the game. We had far more chances than Finn Harps, last week we had far more chances than Drogheda [United] – that is something that is irking a little bit, that we’re not taking our chances.
“Now, we didn’t have a huge amount of chances [against Rovers], I’m not saying that, but we limited one of the best sides in the country to almost zip as well and that was hugely positive”
Galway fans will decide whether or not the club is already in crisis, but Keegan was keen to put a different perspective on it with his analysis.
“Look at the league table, we’ve problems – look at our performances, different story.”
Trevor Murray
