Galway United completed their first back-to-back wins of the 2017 SSE Airtricity League Premier Division season with a 4-1 win over Drogheda United at Eamonn Deacy Park, to complement their recent victory over Limerick. The Tribesmen have put in two
Galway United completed their first back-to-back wins of the 2017 SSE Airtricity League Premier Division season with a 4-1 win over Drogheda United at Eamonn Deacy Park, to complement their recent victory over Limerick.
The Tribesmen have put in two of their best performances of the campaign in recent times, and in the press huddle following their biggest win so far this year, Keegan was happy but still lamented his side’s lack of a clean sheet.
“We are winning emphatically, we’re still not winning with clean sheets,” he said, referencing Stephen Elliot’s consolation goal.
“That’s one annoying part of it. Conor Winn’s very annoyed in [the dressing room] and rightly so. He actually very nearly pulled off a fantastic save for their goal, he was unlucky that it sneaked in under the crossbar. Look, that’s only a slight downside to what have been two very good performances.”
Gavan Holohan stole the show with a phenomenal hat-trick – each strike a contender for Goal of the Season.
Scoring two in the opening half and another late on in the second with looped over the goalkeeper from long-range, he was the star of the show, and Keegan revealed that Holohan’s impressive display was down to a tactical tweak.
“As you’ve seen yourselves probably in recent weeks – we’ve tweaked the system. The main reason for tweaking the system was Gavan,” he said.
“Gavan was quite often played as one of two deep midfielders alongside David Cawley – he can play there no problem, but there’s no doubt that to get the most out of Gavan we need him over the halfway line and in the attacking third of the field. For one, he can dribble past players, two he can play a slide-rule pass to put a fella in on goal and, as we saw tonight, three he can smash them.
“It’s been very important. It’s no coincidence that since we’ve moved Gavan’s position, we’re on the back of two wins and a draw in those three games.”
Up next for the Tribesmen is a clash against table-toppers Cork City, but Keegan is quietly confident that his side can sneak something from the game.
“Look, I don’t know if there’s such a thing as a good time to be catching Cork considering how good they are but you could make the argument that their first league game without Sean Maguire is a good time to be catching them,” Keegan said.
