Youthful Athlone Nick Win Over Wexford Youths

Friday 15th April 2011. Airtricity League Division 1
Wexford Youths 0-1 Athlone Town. Ferrycarrig Park.

While Wexford had Youth in their name it was Athlone Town who had youth in the team with u17 stars Alex Gardiner, Ian Sweeney, Roy King and Joe Woods all taking places in the starting line up for the away game in Ferrycarrig. And to keep things with a youthful twist, Town had Darren Young on the bench!

With Athlone going into the game with the worst scoring record, and Wexford the worst defensive record it was hard to know how things would pan out and the first half was probably the most evenly matched game I’ve seen in a while. With no real chances of note, 0-0 at the break summed up the half.

Second half saw a bit more ungency in both sides and although Athlone seemed to have more possession, Wexford probably created more chances.

With the clock running down, Athlone brought on newly signed Kevin Horan and the striker almost made the headlines on his return to Town only for his shot to fly thewrong side of the post. But the young forward played an unconvential part in Athlones winner. After winning a corner kick, he hit the dead ball himself and although it proved to be a shocker it luckily won another corner. Not wanting to risk another one, Horan left the ball for Niall Scullion to whip in, and in crowded 6 yard box Tommy Barrett got his head to the ball to stun the home side and silence the home crowd.

And so it ended with a Town win, much to the disappointment of the Wexford players, one claiming it was an embarrassment to lose to a team like Athlone. Have to wonder how a team that prior to this game had conceeded 12 goals were surprised at conceeding 1 more!

Other than that the only notable happenings was the small yet vocal home crowd who constantly boo’d Athlone captain Kevin Williamson and also gave Ronan Stack a ribbing, comparing his haircut to that of Justin Bieber!

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Goal scorer Tommy Barrett gets on the ball for Athlone

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