Caulfield is wary of threat from wounded Wanderers

John Caulfield is counselling against looking at a league table at this early stage of the season, and especially one which is veering wildly off the preseason script in terms of who was expected to be challenging for promotion, and who was expected to struggle.

Caulfield’s Galway United welcome Bray Wanderers to Eamonn Deacy Park tonight (7.45pm), but rather than the Wanderers that many expected to be fighting it out at the top of the table, United will play host to a side still looking for a first win of the season and in danger of being cut adrift in the table, if you were of a mind of go against the manager’s advice and take a quick look.

When Wilson Waweru pounced for what proved to be the only goal of the game in the 81st minute of United’s play-off quarter-final at the Carlisle Grounds last Halloween night, the home side’s players collapsed to the floor, a haunted look across their faces.

In the words of the American baseball legend, Yogi Berra, who was partial to a malapropism or two, it was “déjà vu all over again” for Wanderers, as just a fortnight earlier, Carlton Ubaezuonu had popped up with a 93rd minute winner for United at the same venue.

The Wicklow club may still haunted by those two late-late shows by United as they head west this evening, but Caulfield knows tonight’s opponents are far better than their results to date suggest.

“They have had a lot of fellas out to be fair to them, some first-team players have been missing and really, the only thing they are struggling for is goals. I mean, they’ve drawn with Shels, they’ve drawn with UCD, with Treaty – they only lost the one game [against Athlone], and that was only by a goal,” Caulfield said this week.

He is right in saying that tonight’s visitors have been struggling in front of goal – three of their six games have ended in scoreless draws, so if United can keep a lid on the threat of Brandon Kavanagh, who has scored three of Bray’s five goals this season, the prospects of a first win in six attempts on home soil against the club they succeeded as FAI Cup champions 30 years ago next week should be significantly increased.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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