Athlone Suffer Another Second Half Setback
Friday 21st September 2012. Airtricity League Division 1
Athlone Town 0-3 Mervue United.
For the second game in a row, Athlone Town finished a first half scoreless against a team below them in the table, only to slump to a disappointing second half defeat by three goals.
The main difference between this game and last weeks clash with Wexford Youths however was that Athlone could have had the game wrapped up inside the opening 20 minutes had they been more ruthless in front of goal.
With the game just 2 minutes old, Mark Sherlock latched on to Stephen Relihans forward pass, and although the striker steered his shot past Ger Hanley in the Mervue goal, the ball rebounded off the post much to the relief of the visiting defence.
Minutes later it was Mark McGoldrick who almost put the Town ahead but his time Hanley got his angles better and parried the ball away before it was cleared again. As the game drew near the 20 minute mark, McGoldrick again had chances to get his 1st goal of the season but again the Mervue net minder was equal to the efforts.
Before the break, Etanda Nkololo came close to scoring for Mervue however his attempted chip sailed just wide of Pat Jennings near post.
As the second half started, Mervue started to put Athlone under more pressure and could have wrapped things up themselves within 10 minutes of the restart only for Pat Hoban to fluff a chance before Jean Biansumba puta header off target directly in front of goal.
With 20 minutes left, Hoban made up for his earlier miss to head Mervue into the lead. Things went from bad to worse for Athlone as Shane Dunne harshly received his marching orders after getting a second yellow card, before Biansumba also made up for his earlier miss to fire home from close range as the Athlone defence looked in disarray.
With the game in injury time, Hoban netted his second of the night when his well struck half volley right flew in off the post right on the full time whistle to make it 3-0 to Mervue.
The only entertaining part of the second half for Town fans was seeing the 4th official getting an arm full of cup-a-soup when a steward tried to stop the ball flying into the stand only to spill his luke warm beverage over the unsuspecting Ray Matthews.
Click Here For Full Set From Athlone Town v Mervue United
Goal scorer Jean Biansumba shields the ball away from Brian McCarthy
Click Here For Full Set From Athlone Town v Mervue United
More damage would have been done if the 4th Official had to drink the offending soup
AC Sports Images 