Preview: Athlone Town vs Wexford Youths

• Gareth Penrose
• Sat, Jun 28 2008




Athlone Town welcome Wexford Youths to Lissywollen on Saturday night, knowing a win will move them past Wexford into 8th place in the eircom First Division. (kick-off 19:30).

Athlone manager Dermot Lennon will be hoping his side can secure their first home league win of the season, but he will once again be watching from afar as he serves the third of his four match ban. Dave O’Dowd is unavailable due to a work injury which will sideline him for six to eight weeks. Colm Jinks is out due to suspension.

Wexford Youths have a full squad to choose from and will be buoyed by the midweek FAI Ford Cup replay win over Killester. Coach Noel O’Connor however is demanding more consistency from his young side.

"The players and team need to be more consistent," O'Connor said. "To be consistent is what is the real hallmark of a good player and there's no point in us playing well and winning like we did earlier in the week if it's a once off.

"We need to come out and give the same good performance and hopefully we start this week, as we've a clean bill of health and we're on the back of a good cup win."

The betting on the morning of the match has Athlone Town as favourites at 5-4, Wexford Youths at 7-4, and a draw at 9-4. The Extratime.ie money would be on a Lissywollen draw, with a scoreline of 1-1 the predicted result, which you would get at 5-1.

The game kicks off at 19:30.