Stylistically, this matchup appears to favour Galway despite their underdog status, based on the teams’ performances and patterns of play so far. Galway’s strength comes from their attacking threat from set pieces, particularly corners, long throws, and crosses, often targeting towering 6’5” Patrick Hickey, who has 3 goals so far this season. Of the eight goals scored by Galway this season, four have come from corners, one from a long throw, one from a cross, and one from a deflected long shot. Their well-drilled corner routines, which often use in-swinging deliveries to create chaos in the six-yard box, are likely to trouble a vulnerable Bohemians defence.

Bohemians have shown a particular weakness at defending set pieces this season. Their goalkeeper James Talbot, who was their backup last season, has struggled this season and looks to be lacking in confidence. At just 5’9”, so far he has had difficulty dealing with corners effectively. His struggles were particularly evident against St Pats last game, where he punched a corner poorly, it going straight to a St Pats player for him to score.

The defensive concerns for Bohemians go beyond the goalkeeper. Their young centre-back Sean Grehan, on loan from Crystal Palace, has been exposed in aerial battles on multiple occasions this season. Notably, he struggled against Sean Maguire, failing to properly challenge for a header, Maguire losing him and scoring a header. With Grehan also having been away on international duty with Ireland’s youth team over the break, he won’t have trained much with the squad. Additionally, their experienced centre back Jack Cornwall, with 134 appearances for the club and stints with Shamrock Rovers, Shelbourne, and Derry City, is ruled out through injury, which further weakens their defence.

Bohemians’ attacking play is also a concern. So far, they have lacked a clear style of play going forward, showing impatience when building attacks. This often results in speculative long shots that rarely pose a threat. Bohemians have scored just five goals in six games this season, with three coming against Waterford, two of which were penalties and the other a long shot. Against Cork, they scored via an extremely lucky deflected long shot, and their only other goal came against Shamrock in the first game of the season, relying heavily on a solo run from Connor Parsons, with the rebound finished off by Tierney after his initial effort hit the post. The victory over Shamrock may look good on paper, but it came against a Shamrock side playing between European games, dealing with numerous injuries, and boosted by a large crowd at the Aviva Stadium. It was more of a circumstantial win rather than a sign of Bohemians’ quality. Their attack has been inconsistent and lacks a clear stye of play, which Galway should be well-equipped to handle.

Defensively, despite keeping just one clean sheet, Galway have been very solid this season. They kept a clean sheet against Waterford last time out, conceded only a penalty away to Derry, limited reigning champions Shelbourne to one goal, and dealt well with an in-form Drogheda. Their goal conceded against St Pats was a goal-of-the-season contender, and their opening day goals conceded to Cork were the result of two somewhat lucky long shots. Overall, Galway have conceded just four goals in their last five matches, demonstrating resilience against much better attacking sides than Bohemians. Even if Galway’s regular goalkeeper Brendan Clarke is still unavailable, youngster Watts has performed well since stepping in, showing that Galway’s defensive structure remains robust regardless of the personnel.

Overall, based on their games so far this season, Galway's style of play looks well suited to take expose a struggling Bohemians defence, and there has been insufficient evidence of any clear style of play going forward to earn Bohemians favourite status for this match up - therefore Galway +0.25 looks to be a generous price at 1.93.