Mervue United -v- Athlone Town

• Terry Flaherty
• Sat, May 22 2010


Mervue United host Athlone Town in the Airtricity League First Division on Saturday afternoon at Terryland Park with an earlier kick off time of 2 p.m. due to the Champions League Final taking place on Saturday night.

This game was originally pencilled in for Sunday afternoon at 3 p.m. but has had to be rescheduled due to Mervue’s involvement in the FAI Youth Cup final against Fairview Rangers in Limerick at the same time on Sunday afternoon.

Both sides will be looking to bounce back from disappointing results last weekend as neither recorded a win. Mervue put in what manager Tom French described as “their worst performance of the season so far” after a 2-0 defeat away to Limerick FC. Athlone missed a bagful of chances and found themselves 2-0 down to Salthill Devon before half time sub Austin Skelly rescued an unlikely point with two goals in 16 second half minutes.

French will be down to the bare bones of his squad for this game due to the unavailability of the club’s youth team players while David O’Dowd (knee), Martin Conneely, Ollie Keogh and David Goldbey are all still sidelined. Mark Ludden and Darren Young should return to the squad after training this week, while Tommy Walsh should also return having missed last week’s defeat. The goalkeeper’s jersey could be a problem also, as Ger Hanley is away on international duty with the Irish under 19’s, while Ryan Griffin is nursing a back injury following the club’s Michael Byrne Cup final win on Tuesday night.

Athlone Town have similar injury problems as they head west , as injuries to Gareth Kenna, Stephen Place and Kevin Horan mean they are definitely unavailable for selection. Captain Des Hope is suspended, while Kevin Williamson is also unavailable for selection for the next two weeks due to his selection for the Garda representative squad who are in Greece for finals of the European Police Soccer Championships. Stehen Caffrey continues to suffer with his back while Austin Skelly will be hoping for no reaction to his groin injury after returning last week from injury in scoring form.

Mervue manager French commented on this week’s game "We are looking forward to getting back out on Saturday and putting a poor display behind us. Athlone are having a mixed bag of results as of late and it’s a game that we will be hoping to take something out of. If we can be at our best we will get something. We will have small squad to choose from as five players are playing on Sunday in the FAI youth Cup Final against Fairview Rangers in Limerick while Ger Hanley is also on International duty”.

Athlone won the first meeting of the sides earlier this season when a second half header from defender Brian McCarthy was all that separated the sides at Lissywoollen. With both sides struggling to field their strongest sides a draw looks the most likely outcome this time.

Kick off in Terryland Park is at the earlier time of 2pm.

Extratime.ie Prediction: 1-1 draw