Keith Kelly

MERVUE United and SD Galway play their penultimate games in the Airtricity League First Division tonight, with one hoping the curtain comes down on their season some time around 9.35pm, and the other hoping to extend the campaign into the following weekend.

The Fahy’s Field side are three points better off than their city rivals, and also enjoy a goal difference of 16 over SD Galway, so they know a win tonight against Waterford United (7.45pm) means they can’t be caught by Tony Mannion’s men.

Johnny Glynn’s side did enjoy a 4-0 win at the RSC in the FAI Cup last month, but with Waterford still harbouring a chance – albeit a slim one – of claiming the League title, the Munster side are strong favourites to claim all three points tonight.

That would leave the door open for SD Galway to bring their season down to the last game of the season, a derby with Mervue United in Fahy’s Field next weekend, but in order to do so, they will need to better Mervue’s result tonight when they host Finn Harps in Eamonn Deacy Park (7.45pm).

Good displays in recent games were finally rewarded with a win away to Longford Town last weekend – their third win in six games – which ended the Midlanders’ title chances. They were thrashed 5-1 by Harps when the sides last met in Deacy Park back in June, but their four league wins have all come since that hiding, which suggests they might have timed their run just  right to avoid a bottom-placed finish for the third season on the trot.

Elsewhere, the draw for the First Round of the Airtricity U-19 League Cup has seen two Galway sides handed a bye into the Second Round, while the third club involved has been handed a home tie.
Both Elite Division side Salthill Devon and First Division side Mervue United have been given a bye into the  Second Round of the competition; while another First  Division side, Galway United Supporters’ Trust FC, have been drawn at home to fellow First Division side, Limerick FC.

There are seven ties in total in the First Round, with the winners of those games going into the hat for the Second Round along with the nine teams who received a First Round bye. The First Round games are to be played by the end of this month.

Meanwhile, a series of meetings are being organised around the country for League of Ireland fans in the coming weeks, including one in the Galway Rovers clubhouse in Claddagh Hall, which takes place on Thursday, October 11, at 8pm.

The meetings are being organised by the supporters trust movement in Ireland, with the assistance of Supporters Direct, and the purpose of the meeting is to discuss issues affecting fans and their clubs, assemble some ideas for a national supporters’ charter and to discuss whether there is a need for a united voice for League of Ireland fans and what form that voice could take.

More information can be found by emailing loifanforum@gmail.com or at www.facebook.com/loifansforum The meetings will culminate in a Fans’ Weekend, to be held in Cork on the weekend of November 10/11.

The Fans’ Weekend will feature discussion on football in Ireland and will debate the outcomes of the Fans’ Forum.