One would have to be very brave or foolish to bet on either of these two mediocre sides progressing to the next round judging from the performances at Oriel Park last night.
Dundalk had the tonic of an early goal and should have run out easy winners but failed to take advantage of many scoring chances in the first half.
Galway picked up a soft equaliser in injury time at the end of that period and improved their game enough in the second half to earn a draw. The opening score came after only five minutes when the Galway keeper, Darragh Sheridan, failed to hold a 30-yard shot from Donal Broughan and Aaron Callaghan was up to force the ball to the net from about five yards.
Galway were on the defensive for the rest of the first half but somehow snatched an equaliser against the run of play when Dundalk keeper John Connolly failed to cut out a Mark Herrick cross into the box and Michael Keane was able to pick his spot in the corner of the Dundalk net.
DUNDALK: Connolly, Hoey, Crawley, Broughan, Callaghan, Flanagan, Kavanagh, Reilly, Nesovic, Prizeman, Keddy. Subs: Connolly for Crawley (half-time), Robinson for Nesovic (76 mins), Lawless for Prizeman (80 mins).
GALWAY UNITED: Sheridan, Keady, Carberry, Silke, Clery, O'Brien, Keane, Herrick, Forde, Carter, Quirke. Subs: Malle for Keane (78 mins), Ryan for O'Brien (88 mins).
Referee: J McDermott (Dublin).
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