One Goal, Two Referees And Three Points Keep Town On Top
Friday 2nd August 2013. Airtricity League Division 1
Athlone Town 1-0 Finn Harps
A debut goal from Enda Curran put clear daylight between first and second after a 1-0 win over Finn Harps put Athlone two points clear of rivals Longford at the top of the table.
Again it was a game where Athlone didn’t play particularly well, but although facing a hard hitting Finn Harps, they battled hard to go into the half time break goalless.
The second half saw the introduction of Conor Fitzgerald as referee, replacing Rhona Daly who didn’t reappear after the break. More importantly for Athlone however, the second half also saw Enda Curran come on to make his Town debut.
After many weeks of “will he, wont he” sign speculation, added to the attention from fellow Midlanders Longford, the Galway man entered the field to rapturous applause from the record attendance.
Just minutes into his debut it looked like Curran would have to go off again when he found himself on the receiving end of Keith Cowans knee, leaving the striker limping with a dead leg.
But his agony turned to ecstasy when, with just 10 minutes left on the clock, Curran linked up well with fellow debutant and former Salthill team mate Graham Kelly to fire low past Ciaran Gallagher for the winning goal.