Early strikes see Athlone make it six successive wins over Mervue

Date Published: 14-May-2012

Athlone Town 2

Mervue United 1

Mervue United’s tendency to start games slowly cost them dearly once again on Friday night as they allowed Athlone Town score twice in the opening 25 minutes to set them on the road to a sixth successive win over Mervue.

Conor O’Malley was making his League debut, and the 17-years-old ‘keeper was called in to action early as he denied Mark Sherlock with two smart saves within a minute as the home side attacked in waves in the opening five minutes.

McEntee had Mervue’s first effort as he blazed over from the edge of the box after good work from Nkololo and Pat Hoban set up the opportunity on nine minutes. Five minutes later and the home side were in front when a Kevin Williamson corner from the right was headed home by centre half Tommy Barrett as the visitors were caught napping for the second week in a row from a corner kick.

Athlone doubled their lead on 25 minutes when Garvan Broughall delivered a free-kick into the box for Brian McCarthy to head the ball down to Stephen Relihan who poked the ball past O’Malley from inside the six yard box.

Mervue responded to the concession of the second goal by forcing four corners in a row as they looked to get back into the game and had a big shout for a goal turned down from the first of those. A scramble in a crowded goalmouth ended with a Mike Elwood effort that was cleared by Barrett with the Mervue players claiming the ball had crossed the line.

Another Keogh delivery from the right was headed over by Hoban just past the half hour mark. The home side should have added to their lead a minute before the break but once again O’Malley did brilliantly blocking a Brian Gill effort with his legs after the midfielder had raced onto a Sherlock ball.

Mervue almost reduced the deficit two minutes into added time when Keogh curled a cracking free-kick over the Athlone wall which had Jennings beaten but the ball struck the angle of the woodwork with McEntee firing the rebound wide of the target.

Both sides made a defensive change for the start of the second half as Mark Walsh replaced Damien Rush for Athlone, while Casserly replaced Damien O’Rourke for Mervue. The change almost paid dividends for Mervue as Casserly had his shot smothered by the advancing Jennings four minutes after the break following a corner.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Sentinel.