League Report: Cabinteely 2 - 1 Athlone Town

Cabinteely put in a dogged display to earn a 2-1 victory over Athlone Town ona poor surface at Stradbrook on Friday night.

 A great strike from Marco Chindea wasn’t enough to mount a comeback after first half goals from the very impressive Ben Hanrahan and Joseph Doyle gave Cabo a two goal lead.

The opening exchanges of the match were very scrappy from both sides with a cut up and muddy Stradbrook pitch playing a big part.

Neither side really could take control of the game and it wasn’t until a brilliant corner from Cabinteely’s Michael Brown, which Athlone failed to deal with, landed in the Midlanders’ six-yard box and was eventually tapped home by Ben Hanrahan.

Athlone were struggling to create chances and the only half chance they had came from a Daniel Purdy free kick. However, Cabinteely keeper Michael Kelly managed to gather the effort comfortably.

A few moments later Cabinteely won a free kick a couple of yards outside the Athlone box. However, Brown flashed the set-piece just wide of the post.

With a half an hour on the clock Cabinteely broke quickly from an Athlone attack and with a lovely cross field pass Brown picked out Joseph Doyle, Doyle cut inside Ian Fletcher and curled a brilliant left footed shot into the corner of the net.

The home side’s defence was solid and as a result, should have went into half time holding onto their clean sheet.

 However, Marco Chindea had other ideas. His peach of a shot from 30 yards out, looped over Michael Kelly and the Cabo keeper will probably be thinking he could have done better.

The first 15 minutes of the second half flew by with Athlone just about having the better of the play without creating many problems for the Cabinteely defence.

Cabinteely had a corner swung in which ended up at the back post with Oscar Brennan.  However, with the goal gaping he hesitated and his shot was blocked the Athlone rear-guard.

After this Brennan started to become more influential in the middle of the park and was playing a massive role towards driving his team forward.

The Midlanders, knowing they needed to push for the equaliser starting pinning Cabinteely into their own half. Val Feeney had a shot from the edge of the area which had Kelly scrambling for it and the keeper was only grateful to see the ball go just wide of his post.

The pressure continued to tell and Cabinteely were now trying to play on the break. A ball was played up to the brilliant Hanrahan, he controlled it wonderfully and slid through substitute Darren Clarke, Clarke was on- on-one with the keeper but his heavy touch allowed Evan Moran to put enough pressure on him for Clarke to knock it out for a goal kick.

Cabinteely’s first lapse of concentration came in the final few minutes, Chindea was played through but he shot early and blazed it over the bar to the relief of the home support.

Three additional minutes were added by the referee, but Cabinteely held on comfortably to secure the 2-1 win.

Eddie Gormley will be delighted with the three points and the performance his side put in tonight.

Cabinteely: Michael Kelly; Karl Byrne, Andrew Wall, Edward McDonagh, Kevin Knight; Joseph Doyle, Shane Boyle, Joseph Doyle, Oscar Brennan, Michael Brown (Aaron Brilly 90); Ben Hanrahan, Stephen Hanley (Darren Clarke 70’).

Subs Not Used: Sean Burke, Lee Mitchell, Troy Owens, Oliver Hamzat, Cathal Gillen.

Yellow Cards: Karl Byrne (18), Kevin Knight (60).

Athlone Town: Evan Moran; Simon Dixon (Calvin Douglas 36), Jack Tuite, Kevin Farragher, Ian Fletcher; Marco Chindea, David Cassidy, Val Fenney (Conor Dunne 88), Cian O’Sullivan (Alan O’Sullivan 74); Daniel Purdy, Emeka Onwubiko.

Subs Not Used: Dan Molloy, Daryl Carrigy, Alan Kelly, Sean Nolan.

Yellow Cards: Douglas (82), Feeney (85).

Referee: Michael O’Connor.

Attendance: 902.

Extratime.ie Man of the Match: Ben Hanrahan (Cabinteely).