Kerley content with Athlone win

Athlone Town carved out a deserved 2-1 win over SD Galway on the opening night of the season and after the game manager Mike Kerley expressed his satisfaction with most of what he had seen from his players.

“It was a good win, a good three points and I felt we were very much in control of the game. We probably had four or five good, clear chances which we should have taken, but towards the end we just let them back into the game. In the last five minutes, to score a goal like that from a free kick so far out, I don’t know what the wall was doing or what’s happened there, but it was a sloppy goal to give away and the momentum then goes with Salthill. But you’ve got to commend the defenders and say they stood up tonight in the last few minutes.

On the subject of striker Noel McGee, perhaps Athlone’s most impressive performer on the night, Kerley was full of praise.

“Yeah, ever since he’s gone into the army, it’s really changed him, you know. There’s a lot of structure in his life, he’s training every day, he’s fit and he’s come here with a different attitude. I’ve made him captain for the season because of the way he’s carried himself, he’s been excellent.

“And the young lad that scored tonight, Sean Geurin, is still only seventeen and he’s another good prospect. He took his goal really well, it was a great finish from such a young lad. We still had a lot of young players on the bench who didn’t get a run tonight, but they will. Because they’re good players, they’re just not getting in at the moment but there will be chances for them.

On a less positive note, the playing surface at Lisseywoollen was not good and it’s a problem that the Athlone boss is keen to address as soon as circumstances allow.

“The pitch needs a lot of work. We do have plans but the weather at the moment is too wet. We have the sand... we have the people ready to go but with the rain it’s just impossible to get on the pitch. It’s kind of a catch 22, you want to get the pitch right but if they go on it now they’ll just wreck it for the rest of the season. I think when we played up in Sligo you could see that the players we have can play football. We played excellently up there and I know we lost 3-0 but some of the football we played was a lot better than what we played tonight. For us to compete in this league we need to have a better pitch but that’s a work in progress and that will happen over the next few weeks.”

With three points in the bank from the opening weekend Kerley’s thoughts naturally turn to Athlone’s next assignment, a midlands derby clash with Longford Town which takes place at Flancare Park next Saturday night.

“Yeah, Longford is a big game for us. They brought in a lot of players this year, they’ve spent a lot of money in trying to push for promotion but I think we have a decent enough squad and if we had two or three more players we’d be there or thereabouts. So we’ve nothing to fear. Every time we went up there last year we played well and I think our results there were won one, drew one, lost one. So we’re fairly close to Longford.”