Town Nearly Unstring Harps

Friday 1st October 2010. Airtricity League Division 1
Finn Harps 2-2 Athlone Town
With nothing to play for, no interest from the majority of fans and absolutely zero expectation … Athlone sprang into an unbelievable 2 nil lead withing 17 minutes of kick off against Finn Harps in Ballybofey. Declan O’Brien, assisted in great deal by the Harps keeper, pounced on indicision not once but twice to fire Town into a surprise early lead.

Even with Athlone 2 to the good there was always an uneasy feeling and Harps managed to pull one back just after the hour mark as Stephen McLaughlin followed up on Kevin McHughs blocked effort to score from close range.

Second half was much as the first but then a bizarre piece of officialdom left everyone scratching their heads. The ball went out of play, off a Harps player for a throw to Athlone. Linesman flags for a Harps throw, Referee over rules and corrects him … Mark Nolan stands waiting to get the ball to take his throw but instead a Harps player takes the throw … Ref looks at the linesman and waves play on!

Harps kept the pressure on until a dubious penalty handed an equaliser to them. Even at 2-2 it was nervous times for Town and only for a block from Stephen Relihan and an unbelievable top corner save from Michael Schlingermann, Town would have left with nothing.

If offered a point away to Harps before kick off then almost everyone would have grabbed it with both hands … but under the circumstances of throwing away a 2-0 lead it can only go down as another disappointing result.

Declan O'Brien celebrates his brace against Harps

[Photos To Follow]