Athlone Town 0 - 3 Kildare County

And so the goal drought continues, as Athlone Town went down 3-0 to league new-comers Kildare County in St. Mel's Park this evening.

Athlone started the brighter of the two sides and had a number of early chances, but like most chances created this season, none of them were converted. Skipper Stephen Kelly rifled a shot at County keeper Tadhg Murphy on the half hour mark, but the young Murphy made a great save to keep it at 0-0. The ball was then hit up field and Philip Gorman ran into the box under very little pressure, picked his spot and knocked the ball off the post into the back of the net. Curran should have done alot better, but the defense was nowhere to be seen either. While it looked like Athlone would only go in one down at half time, Kildare had other ideas. Some lax defending from young Robert Shine on the right, let Kildare in for their second. Shine just let his man stroll by him, nutmegging him in the process to pass the ball into the box, hitting off Olivers knee and into the back of the net. Well at least now three Athlone players have scored this season. After starting the game positively, Athlone fell to pieces after conceeding the first goal.

Again, Athlone started the second half better than Kildare, without having any clear cut chances. Damien Rushe came on to replace Alan Clarke after fifteen minutes. Rushe had some good touches, as did Parkes up front. Parkes made a great run on 70 minutes, running around a few Kildare defenders, but his pass onto Gary Devine just had too much pace. Kildare then brought on Keith O'Connor for their goal-scorer Gorman after he picked up a yellow card. The referee stopped play on 80 minutes as Kildare's number two, Damien Brennan had lost his number! County manager Dermot Keely was none too pleased! Davy Dowling then came on, replacing Eric Molloy who had a relatively quiet game. Dowling had a good diving header chance, but he just couldn't stretch far enough to connect with the ball. Three minutes later and Athlone had a great chance with Gary Devine running in the box getting ready to take a shot when he was blatently taken down by the Kildare defender. The referee pointed to the spot, and up stepped Curran! However, after all his play-acting, Murphy made a great save to his right to deny the Athlone number one. Things then went from bad to worse, as substitute O'Connor drilled the ball home from 15 yards to the top of the Town net in the 90th minute. Curran had no chance, but again the Town defense was nowhere to be seen.

The good humoured referee Mr Tuite soon blew up to put Athlone out of their misery. After another 3-0 defeat it is hard to be positive, but there are things to be positive about. Even though Athlone suffered their second 3-0 defeat this week, there are things to be positive about. Kildare are expected to be near the top of table come January, but tonight they were a very ordinary side, one that Athlone could have beaten had they a goal-scorer. The other League favourites Finn Harps and Dundalk are playing in the Northern Section of the First Division Cup, so we haven't seen them play yet, but by all accounts they are both strong this year. So next up is Limerick next Thursday in Limericj in our final game before the First Division kicks off. That campaign begins in Waterford on August 22nd.


ATHLONE TOWN: Shane Curran, Alan Oliver, Micky Collins, Robert Shine, Conor Frawley, Henry Kenny, Alan Clarke, Gary Devine, Warren Parkes, Stephen Kelly, Eric Molloy. Subs: Damien Rushe for Clarke, Davy Dowling for Molloy.

Sorry but I don't want to antagonise you now but I can't let this go.

Enjoyed your match report apart from the part where you said we " were a very ordinary side" and that you would have won if you had a goalscorer.

Credit where credit is due. Any 3-0 win away from home is surely a good result. This team has only been playing together for a few months. If you had a goalscorer he would have had to score 4 times to win. Now thats quality.

I was at the game and County never looked liked conceeding. I don't remember any clear cut Athlone chances that were sitters by any strectch of the imagination.

I know you are investing in local talent this year and I hope it works out for you but if a "very ordinary side" can beat Athlone 3-0 then I'd hate to see what a good side would do.

Also how can anyone put County up there with the favourites when we have no track record to speak off?

Sorry if it seemed like I was trying to take away from Kildare's win, I wasn't. I was talking about our season to come after playing one of the sides some people have touted(rightly or wrongly) to be in the shakeup at the end of the season. And one thing I forgot to put into the report was that Kildare had some travelling support, which was nice to see.

Anyways, I never said that we should or would have won. I said we could have, because Kildare were pretty ordinary. I was talking in a more general sense. The 3-0 scoreline did flatter ye. Kildare by no means played us off the pitch, and some very poor defending just caught us out. The third goal really was finished nicely. The second one was a terrible og which shouldn't have made it into the box in the first place. And the first one was just poor defending again that let Gorman one on one with Curran, who should have done better.

By the way, what age is your goalkeeper? He looks about 16! Although fair play to him, he made a great save on the peno.

Anyways cheers for the criticism!

I don't think I was being critical or maybe I was. Thats bias and I suppose we all suffer from it.

I actually hope Town do well because you may or may not know but two ex-town players were actually involved in setting up Newbridge Town in the sixties which has led now to the set up of Kildare County so I don't want to 'bite the hand that feeds me' so to speak.

Our no.1 is U-21 and played for the league against Celtic. I think he's about 20/21.

Anyway best of luck for the rest of the year.