Double Preview: Derry City v. Galway United, Shelbourne v. Derry City

 

Double Preview: Derry City v. Galway United, Shelbourne v. Derry City

 

Derry City v. Galway United, League of Ireland Premier Division, Round 7, Ryan McBride Brandywell Stadium, 29^th March 2024 kick-off 7.45pm

 

Shelbourne v. Derry City, League of Ireland Premier Division, Round 8, Tolka Park, 1^st April 2024, kick-off 5pm

 

Derry City come into an Easter weekend double-header after Bohemians ended their unbeaten start to the season nearly two weeks ago. First up are newly promoted Galway United, who make their first voyage to the Brandywell in eight years and are coming off the back of a three game winless streak. Table-toppers Shelbourne play host to the Candystripes on Easter Monday and sit with a five point buffer on Ruaidhrí Higgins’ men in second. With Will Patching and Patrick McEleney both fit again after the international break, the City faithful will hope that the 2-1 defeat in Dalymount last time out will turn out to be a one off.

 

Ronan Boyce’s second goal of the season wasn’t enough to pull back a point for City, who went 2-0 down against Bohemians thanks to goals from Dayle Rooney and former Derry striker James Akintunde. Despite keeping the majority of the ball in Dalymount, Higgins will hope that his side translate the possession into chances going into the Easter period. It’s a Good Friday encounter against Galway United first, a side who haven’t played City since September 2017. The Tribesmen were the runaway winners of last season’s First Division, winning 30 of their 36 games and being crowned champions with a twenty-five point lead on second placed Waterford. Scoring 98 goals and conceding just 18 last year, Galway were always going to be an interesting prospect coming back into the Premier Division.

 

John Caulfield’s men are currently sat fifth in the table, picking up wins against Waterford and Dundalk so far this term. Three 1-0 losses to St. Pat’s, Shamrock Rovers and Shelbourne show that, despite losing, Galway aren’t getting thrashed in the way that some may have expected a newly promoted team to do so. Their 4-0 win over Dundalk in last year’s FAI Cup quarter-final raised eyebrows and sent a message to the rest of the league that they meant business.

 

Galway United didn’t splash the cash in the transfer window. Despite early rumours that they were in for Galwegian striker Pat Hoban, who just happens to be the league’s top goal-scorer, Caulfield and Ollie Horgan prioritised keeping the quality that they had. Conor McCormack and Aodh Dervin have been stalwarts in the midfield, whilst striker Wassim Aouachria was tied down to a new deal. Keeping hold of David Hurley, who registered 22 goals and six assists from the midfield last term is perhaps Galway’s most impressive piece of business. League of Ireland experience was brought in with the signings of Garry Buckley and Karl O’Sullivan from Sligo Rovers. Leo Gaxha, who impressed for Kerry FC last year after signing from Sheffield United, joined to strengthen striker options whilst Patrick Hickey, Joe Wright and Jeannot Esua signed from Athlone Town, Millwall and Ekanas IF respectively. Wide midfielder Al-Amin Kazeem, who has made a raft of League Two appearances in the last couple of years, joined on-loan from Colchester United and already looks impressive.

 

It’s been eight years since Galway played in the Brandywell, and seven since they last played Derry away – back when the Candystripes played out of Buncrana’s Maginn Park in 2017. Galway’s captain Conor McCormack started for Derry City in that game back in 2016. The Tribesmen’s last away win against Derry came back in May 2015 but you have to go back to September 2009 to find Galway’s next most recent away win against City. In saying that, the Candystripes have won just twice of their last ten games in all competitions against Galway, going back to March 2015.

 

Three points against Galway United would be crucial in keeping pace with Monday’s opposition, Shelbourne. Damien Duff’s men are the only side unbeaten in the Premier Division this season and have won five of their last six games. They’re challenging more for the title this year than people may have expected but home victories over Galway United and Shamrock Rovers, and away wins against St. Pat’s, Sligo Rovers and Bohemians, show that they’re currently the team to beat in the country. Getting one over Shelbourne is getting more difficult too. They haven’t lost a league game since September of last year and haven’t lost to Derry since that March. That win for Derry back in March is the only time that the Candystripes have beaten Shels since the 4-0 2022 FAI Cup final victory, with three draws and three red cards seeing the honours shared across the rest of 2023’s encounters between these two.

 

After Hull City’s Turkish owner Acun Ilicali bought a stake in Shelbourne in June 2023, before terminating his ownership in November, it seemed that Shels might have been in for a rough patch. That wasn’t the case, however. Damien Duff’s contract was renewed shortly after Mickey O’Rourke of PremierSports ownership fame took over. Shelbourne’s financial backing wasn’t dented either. League of Ireland veterans Sean Gannon and Keith Ward came in, followed by Dean Williams and John O’Sullivan from Bohemians. John Martin was brought in from Dundalk whilst goalkeeper Lorcan Healy was signed to rival Conor Kearns.

Losing Jack Moylan, one of the standout performers in the league last year, to Lincoln City wasn’t ideal from a Shelbourne point of view but it seems like Will Jarvis has been the perfect replacement. The 21 year old Englishman spent the second half of last season on-loan at Tolka from Hull City before putting pen to paper on another loan deal for 2024. Four goals in six appearances, including both goals in a derby win over St. Pat’s, shows that he’s one of the division’s best players at the minute. The acquisition of Liam Burt from Shamrock Rovers, albeit on loan, certainly doesn’t seem to be bad business either.

 

Three wins and two draws from Derry City’s opening six is still a promising start. With Pat Hoban sitting at the top of the goalscoring charts after bagging six in six, the five point gap between first and second may not be as big as it seems. Best case scenario, City register two wins this weekend and Dundalk beat Shelbourne on Friday – meaning the Candystripes would be top this time next week. Easter hasn’t been the kindest to City in recent times though, losing both on Good Friday and Easter Monday last year. In fact, City’s last win on Easter weekend came with a 2-1 win over Finn Harps back in 2018. Four points out of Galway and Shels this weekend certainly wouldn’t be a bad return. I’ve also gotten to the end of this preview without making ANY April Fools jokes about Monday as they’ll probably come back to bite me.

Pól O'Hare - 28 March 2023