Keith Kelly

WE’VE had the New Year, the Chinese New Year, and the start of the national leagues in the GAA world, but for a dedicated niche of sports fans, the ‘real’ new year only starts this weekend – the kick-off of the League of Ireland, which has been rebranded as the Airtricity League.
 

It will be a historic season in Galway, which will have three clubs playing in the league this year – Galway United in the Premier Division, while in the First Division, Mervue United – debutants themselves last year – will be joined by Salthill Devon for their first year in the national league.

Galway’s representation is the same level as the provinces of Munster (Limerick FC, Waterford United and Cork City FORAS Co-op) and Ulster (Finn Harps, Derry City and Monaghan United), and opinion is split between those who think the inclusion of Mervue and Salthill shows ambition on behalf of the clubs, and those who think it is folly to be spreading resources so thinly in a city and county not renowned for coming out in numbers to support their various representative teams.

Galway United get their season underway tonight (kick-off 7.45pm) with a trip to Richmond Park to face a St Patrick’s Athletic side they beat in all four meetings between the sides last year. Pat’s will be looking to build on their 1-1 draw with Linfield in the Setanta Cup last weekend, with Alex Williams grabbing the goal for the Dubliners.

The line-up that night featured former United players Shane Guthrie and Vinny Faherty, who both moved to Richmond Park in the off season, and the latter says he is looking forward to coming up against his former side.

“I’m excited about playing Galway, I enjoyed my two and a half seasons there and I’ve still a lot of good friends there, the likes of Derek O’Brien, Cian McBrien and Seamus Conneely. The important thing for me on Friday is that Pat’s get three points from the game and while I’d love to get on the score-sheet, it’s all about the team getting off to a winning start,” he said.

There will be a couple of former Pats players in the United ranks as well, with Barry Ryan and Derek O’Brien both having spent time at Inchicore. However Bobby Ryan, who joined United from Pats last week, is unavailable as he serves a one-match suspension carried over from last season.

Alan Murphy is ruled out through injury, but Jason Molloy has come through training this week without any problems, while the eye injury picked up by Stephen O’Donnell in the friendly with Limerick two weeks ago has cleared up and he is set to start tonight.

“We’re looking forward to the game, we have been on a two-day camp in Enfield and will travel from there to the match. We have been working on a few things, and held a few team meetings. Everyone is just waiting to get going, and hopefully we can get a positive result,” United manager Sean Connor told Tribune Sport yesterday.

For more, read this week's Galway City Tribune.