Athlone Town 1 - 3 Cobh Ramblers

[atfconline]

Athlone's recent good run came to an end tonight after suffering a disappointing 3-1 defeat to Cobh Ramblers in Saint Mel's Park.

Without being anything special, Cobh had the best of the first half and after sending in a number of crosses from the right, one finally found a man in the Athlone box with Steve Yelverton hitting the ball to the back of the net in the 20th minute. Cobh deserved their goal, but did not threaten much after going ahead until five minutes before the break when the defense was caught napping and a Cobh player had a one-on-one with Brennan, but his shot hit the right upright.

Unfortunately Athlone started the second half the way they ended the first, and Cobh went two up four minutes in. The defense was split open, passed out to the left and the resultant cross into the box was fumbled in from close range by Declan McGregor.

Slowly, Town began to wake up and come into the game. Stephen Mullin won the ball on the half way line and ran at the Cobh backs. Unfortunately, there were no Athlone players in the Cobh box so he passed it out to Michael Harney who took a shot. His rebound came to Jan Fitzell who proceeded to run into the box and was taken down! Davy Dowling was lining up the penalty but was replaced at the spot by his captain Stephen Kelly, who made no mistake.

Athlone kept the pressure up and Dowling headed at least four efforts wide. Cobh had Jonathan Coker sent off in the 63rd minuteafter receiving a straight red card for elbowing Town keeper Paul Brennan in the head. However Cobh dug in and Athlone were unable to take advantage of the extra man.

Pushing for an equaliser deep into extra time, Athlone were caught on the counter with no men back, Jason Kabia sent it to the top left hand corner of the net to seal all three points.

So Athlone still await their first home win of the season, and the wait will have to go on abit longer as Athlone's next two games are away from home. Next up is Sligo Rovers on Saturday 12th October and that is followed by a trip to Jackman Park to take on Limerick FC on Sunday 20th October.

[Oh No]

This was a poor one, something like the Galway one, a shame too because this must have been the biggest crowd we had for a long time.

Our defence was a shambles and was all over the place. Defenders losing ball in the oppositions half and then left wide open is a crime. It's obvious that one or two changes needed here.

Generally too, theres too much huffing and puffing, we are seldom in control and always chasing the game. We need to settle down, believe in ourselves and play ball, we have the players to do that.