Galway United 1
Drogheda United 0
GALWAY UNITED GOT their season up and running with a gritty win over Drogheda United at Eamonn Deacy Park after playing over an hour of football with ten men.
Enda Curran gave the hosts a perfect start before Samuel Oji saw red for upending Tiernan Mulvenna when he made a mess of a headed backpass to goalkeeper Conor Gleeson.
On 4 minutes Curran stroked into the bottom corner after turning his man and producing a slick backheel before tucking past Michael Schlingerman for his first goal of the season.
On 26 minutes Oji was given an early bath and from the resulting free kick Sean Thornton clipped the crossbar but it wasn’t a sign of things to come as Drogheda created little in the opening half to draw level.
Curran’s evening then also ended as he was the victim of a tactical change in the wake of Oji’s dismissal and he was replaced by Andy O’Connell and Galway went 4-5-1.
Paul Sinnott’s block denied Stephen Maher as half time approached as Mulvenna was denied by a comfortable save from Gleeson and it was hard to tell who had the extra man at times.
A scrappy second half saw United put every man behind the ball as time went on and they showed great composure and organisation to close out the game despite Jason Marks and Michael Scott going close for Drogs who suffered their first league defeat of the season.
GALWAY UNITED: Conor Gleeson, Colm Horgan, Alex Byrne, Samuel Oji, Stephen Walsh, Gary Shanahan, Paul Sinnott (c), Ryan Connolly, Jason Molloy (David O’Leary, 77), Jake Keegan (Padraic Cunningham, 84), Enda Curran (Andy O’Connell, 31).
DROGHEDA UNITED: Michael Schlingerman, Lloyd Buckley (Carl Walshe, 61), Alan Byrne (c), Neil Yadolahi, Joe Gorman, Cathal Brady (Michael Scott, 79), Stephen Maher, Sean Thornton, Jason Marks, Tiernan Mulvenna, Sean Brennan (Mark Hughes, 61).
Man-of-the-match: Stephen Walsh
Referee: Graham Kelly (Cork)