Midfielder Gavan Holohan came off the bench in extra-time to put Galway United 2-1 up in their EA Sports Cup quarter-final, only for United to then concede a penalty, which Kieran Sadlier converted, as the tie ended up with the dreaded penalty shoot-out.
The game was extremely cagey, and ended unsurprisingly 0-0 after ninety minutes. However the tempo was raised significantly in extra-time as four goals were scored.
Sligo went in front just three minutes in when Matthew Stephens headed in for the home side. Ronan Murray equalised almost immediately, before Holohan’s goal had the visitors in front. After Sadlier’s penalty the game went to the shoot-out.
However, in that shoot-out it was left to Holohan again to become the hero as he slotted home to give the Tribesmen the win and send Shane Keegan’s men into the semi-finals.
“Yeah it was abit of a mad extra time. After the first 90 mins both teams kind of cancelled each other out. I suppose neither side wanted it to go to penalties so they opened up and pushed for a goal and so did we.”
“I was happy to come on and get off the mark for the club, as it was long overdue. It was a decent passage of play that led to the goal. Colm (Horgan) did brilliantly to pull it back, then it was just about getting a good connection on it and finishing it off.”
“We were disappointed not to hang on, and we conceded a silly penalty, but thankfully the luck went our way in the shootout.”
“Obviously it was nice to score the winning penalty but to be honest it wouldn’t have mattered if it was someone else. I’m just delighted we are into the semi finals.”
“After a massive win for us on Friday today was the icing on the cake.”
On the club’s change in Fortune over the past few days Holohan said, “Yeah things are looking up. I think we have shown a lot of character after a poor start, where we probably didn’t get the results we deserved in a few games, but we stuck at it and now we need to build on the last few results.”
Photo Credit: Vinny O’Connor (Galway United)