Emmet Maloneprofiles the advances made at Galway United under Tony Cousins

If Tony Cousins really needed reminding of just how precarious a life in football is he need look no further than the turmoil at Sligo Rovers, who will arrive for his Galway United side's first game of the season tomorrow night without their manager of just four months, Rob McDonald.

Cousins, though, knows all about the twists and turns of life in the game after a long and impressive playing career that has been followed by a solid start to his new life in the highly pressurised world of management.

His only jobs before arriving at Terryland Park last season were as under-21 manager at Shamrock Rovers and assistant to Paul Doolin at Drogheda United, but having failed initially to entirely convince everyone his inexperience would not prove a problem at what is seen as a pivotal time for the club, the Dubliner quickly won the sceptics over with the way he applied himself to the job and the results his team achieved.

His appointment was followed by a significant level of turnover amongst the playing staff as Cousins sought to assemble a squad capable of complementing the dramatic off-field progress made at United over the past few seasons. The result was a major on-field improvement with 31 points taken from the last 36, although, with Shamrock Rovers and Dundalk both in flying form over the latter half of last season, it wasn't quite enough to earn the hoped for top-two finish.

Overall, though, the club achieved what it set out to: a return to the top-flight. Cousins has earned his opportunity to test himself once more against the country's best, just as he did for more than a decade as a striker with the likes of Rovers, Bohemians and Dundalk.

"People badly underestimate the First Division these days," he says, "it's improved a lot since the days when you tended to have a lot of lads coasting and happy to be taking home a wage but the Premier Division is still obviously where everybody wants to be.

"To be honest, it was a tough decision to move from Drogheda because I had a good relationship with Paul (Doolin) there and they have a great set up at the club but you always want to see what you can achieve out on your own and after talking to the people here I had no doubts that they had the same ambition to move forward and win things as me."

That shared sense that something of real substance can be achieved by the Terryland outfit over the coming years has extended to the revamped squad with players agreeing to go full-time for what is essentially the sort of money they might have earned for playing part-time on the basis that success for United will in time benefit everyone.

"We've 10 new players and I've been hugely impressed by everybody's commitment," says the 36-year-old. "We would have had the same budget if we'd been part-time but the feeling was that if we made progress as a club then everyone would benefit and the players want to focus completely on achieving that."

Though the likes of Wes Charles, Stephen O'Flynn and Chris Armstrong have all been drafted in there is also a strong local flavour to the squad and nobody could question its grounding in the area.

"We have seven local lads in the 21 but everybody is going to live in the area and the intention is very much that the club will be an important part of the community. That's the way everything at the club is structured now, it's a hugely positive thing."

Cousins concedes that when it comes to predicting where this year's major honours will go it's hard to look far beyond the likes of Derry, Cork, Drogheda and Bohemians, all of whom have been investing heavily in achieving success on the pitch of late.

"For us to finish as high in the league as we can - staying up is the most important thing - and having a run in at least one of the cups would be a decent enough achievement for the moment," he says.

Like those who have brought Galway United back from the brink of extinction over the past few years, however, the young manager doesn't intend to let things rest there.

Time will tell whether they really can battle their way to game's top table together but given their recent rate of progress few would make the mistake of betting against it.