Wexford FC v Athlone

[ForzaForth]

Vastly improved performance by Wexford this evening as they picked up their first three points of the campaign with a deserved win over Athlone. Wexford started with Heffernan, Douglas, Boyle, Robinson, Chambers, McCann, Dobbs, Hanratty, C. Levingston, Crawford and Webb. Game started cagely enough and, on five minutes, Reece Webb got in a good cross for Wexford which was smartly collected by Minogue in the Athlone goal. A minute later, the dangerous Campion of Athlone hammered a shot off Wexford’s post and it stayed out. Slowly, Wexford gained the upper hand in midfield with Aaron Robinson, Brandon McCann and Conor Levingston beginning to take charge. However, the key change for Wexford was putting Aaron Dobbs up front as the target man where he caused carnage all game until substituted with ten minutes to go in the second half. Dobbsy notched the first goal for Wexford on eleven minutes when he headed home a good cross by Mark Hanratty wide left. One-nil to Wexford at this stage. The game had a few lull periods as well and it remained quiet from then until the 35^th minute when Dobbsy may have been pushed over in the Athlone area, but nothing was given. 1-0 to Wexford at half-time.

[ForzaForth]

Second half hadn’t gone too far when Aaron Robinson returned a ball to the Athlone net which had been punched clear by Minogue after a Wexford free to make it 2-0. On 13 minutes the impressive Heffernan in the Wexford goal, who looks very assured for a keeper playing only his second LOI game, pushed away a good Athlone effort. On 16 minutes, Aaron Robinson made the game safe for Wexford with a smashing effort from 30 yards out which flew into the top-left corner. 3-0 to Wexford. Charlie Heffernan then got down low to his left to keep out another Athlone effort on goal. Wexford started substitutions about midway through the half with Aaron Doran firstly coming on for Wexford and then followed by Danny Furlong and finally Jordan Adeyemo, Darragh Levingston and Matt Dunne. During this period, Campion was put through for Athlone but poked his shot wide of the Wexford post past the advancing Heffernan and then, in injury time, Athlone had a header just wide of the Wexford post. So a comfortable win on the scoreboard at least for the home side but still room for further improvement. In addition to the above, Ethan Boyle also had an excellent game for the home side in defence. Crowd was reported to be 678.