League Report: Limerick FC 4-2 Athlone Town

Martin Russell secured his first three points as Limerick manager tonight at home in Thomond Park stadium.

The Shannonsiders faced a bottom of the table Athlone Town who are struggling to get points on the table. Limerick opened the game bright with an early goal from SSE Player of the Month for August Rory Gaffney. Coulter was caught in two minds when Gaffney beat him to the ball, Gaffney made no mistake to place the ball into the empty net. There was spells of dominance in the game by the Limerick team with a number of chances for Gaffney and Kiernan Djilali. Athlone made no mistake of their chance on the 35th minute, after a series of short passes. James O'Brien played a low cross to Derek Doyle on the six yard box, who placed the ball into the back of the Limerick net.

The sides were level at half time but it was an early start for Limerick again in the second half. This time Kieran Djilali poked Limerick ahead after a save from Coulter fell to his feet, which gave him no option but to tap it into the open net.  Djilali extended the Shannonsiders lead further on the 67th minute after holding off three defenders in the box and blasting his shot into the upper right corner.

Athlone scored late into the game on the 89th minute through Alan Byrne to shorten the lead of the hosts to one, but the little hope they had of earning a point was vanished seconds later when Rory Gaffney bagged a brace to secure all three points for Limerick in a 4 - 2 win.

Limerick FC: Ali Abass; Patrick Nzuzi, Smuel Oji, Stephen Folan, Samuel Oji, Ian Turner, Prince Agyemang (Joesph Ndo 76), Lee-J Lynch,  Shane Duggan (c); Shane O' Connor, Kieran Djilali, Rory Gaffney.
Subs not used: Barry Ryan (gk); Michael Leahy, Shane Tracy, Darragh Rainsford, Val Feeney, Ross Mann.

Booked: None

Athlone Town FC:Ryan Coulter; Derek Prendergast, Brian Shortall, Alan Byrne (c); Kealan Dillion, Mark Hughes, Sean Brennan (Philip Gorman 80), James O'Brien (Ian Sweeney 69), Derek Doyle, Stephen Dunne, Dylan Hayes (Eric Foley 64).
Subs not used: Paul Skinner (gk), Aidan Collins, Barry Clancy, Graham Rusk.

Booked: James O'Brien (22), Sean Brennan (53), Derek Prendergast (86)

Referee: Graham Kelly

Attendance: