Caulfield on Galway United: ‘We have to get out of the division’

By Daragh Nolan

Galway United manager John Caulfield has stated that promotion is the main hallmark for success in his side’s campaign this year.

Galway United get their promotion push for a route out of the SSE Airtricity League First Division campaign against Shelbourne on Friday, 26th March. Kick-off at Eamonn Deacy Park is 7.45pm.

“We have to get out of the division, we can worry about silverware and getting into Europe after that but me and my management team have been brought in to get Galway United into the Premier Division. But talk is cheap, we are in here every day working incredibly hard to make this team the best it can be,” said Caulfield.

“We want to make Eamonn Deacy park a fortress, get wins here week in week out and obviously that all starts next week. In all my experiences I just know you must make sure you continually get positive home results if you are to have any success,”.

There have been wholesale changes to the Galway squad prior to the start of this season, Caulfield and his management team have retained 12 players from last year’s squad and have added 12 more new signings.

“We’ve been working so hard in pre-season to gel those new players; we are playing an exciting brand of football that I know the fans will love to see. We have serious pace and energy around the team but most importantly we have great desire and attitude. We have also still maintained a great local base of players” Caulfield explained.

One of those new signings is former Derry City captain Conor McCormack. McCormack played under Caulfield during his time at Cork City where they won the League of Ireland Premier Division and FAI Cup together. Caulfield believes the midfielder’s experience can help Galway both on and off the pitch.

“We’ve got the nucleus of an incredible young team, a lot of players have come through our academy, the general age profile of our side is about 20 to 23 years old. We wanted to bring Conor in because of those leadership qualities and to help the lads get to that next level,” said Caulfield.

Another of those new additions for this year is Padraic Cunningham who left Galway United four years ago to play for Galway GAA senior football team. Caulfield has long been an admirer of the striker and tried to sign him for his Cork City team in 2018. Now that he has his man the manager is certain Cunningham will have a big impact.

“He’s powerful, quick and I believe he will score goals, so I am delighted to have him back. It’s a huge season for him personally and I feel he is really keen to prove that he can get us a lot of goals and hopefully he can,” said Caulfield.

Picture courtesy of Creative Commons License