Athlone Town -v- Mervue United

• Terry Flaherty
• Sat, Aug 21 2010


Mervue United will look to halt a run of six straight league defeats when they make the short trip up the M6 this evening to take on Athlone Town in the Airtricity First Division. (Kick-off 7.30 pm)

Both these sides will be looking to gain maximum points from this evenings game to put some daylight between themselves and bottom club Salthill Devon, particularly Mervue as their city rivals lie only one point behind them.

Mervue have had a busy August so far, having lost out to Finn Harps and Limerick in the league and exiting the cup in their replay with Premier Division Sporting Fingal all in a seven day period.

Athlone haven’t won in nine league games with their last win against Cork City Foras way back at the end of May when a 1-0 away win secured their last three points in Turners Cross. Five defeats and four draws, three of those draws in their last four games, the most recent last week’s away draw to bottom club Salthill Devon. In fact Athlone have been the draw specialists in the First Division this season having drawn ten of their games in total, a stat that has seen them remain third from bottom but ten points ahead of Mervue.

Mervue manager Tom French will be without the suspended Tommy Walsh tonight following his sending off in last week’s 1-0 home defeat by Limerick, while Dan Cunningham, Mike Tierney and Nicky Curran will all miss tonight’s game as well. Striker Dave Goldbey will return having missed the last couple of games through injury and Ollie Keogh could also return to the side having returned to training.

Athlone Town manager Brendan Place also has suspensions to deal with, as both Eoghan O’Shea and Austin Skelly will sit this one out while Gordan Watson will not featured again this season following his recent serious knee injury. On the plus front captain Des Hope should return for tonight’s game.

Games between these two sides have been tight with Athlone winning this corresponding fixture 1-0 back in March thanks to a second half Brian McCarthy header, while in Terryland Park a late Nicky Curran strike sealed all three points for Mervue in another 1-0 win. In last season’s three meetings both sides recorded a win each, while the other game finished in a 2-2 draw.

Extratime.ie Prediction: This game has all the hallmarks of a score draw 1-1.