Athlone Town -v- Mervue United

• Terry Flaherty
• Thu, Apr 21 2011


Mervue Utd make the short trip up the M6 on Friday evening to take on an in-form Athlone Town side who will go into the game having won both their league games last week, beating Wexford Youths on Friday and Finn Harps on Tuesday, both by 1-0 scorelines. (Kick off, 7.30pm)

Mervue manager, Johnny Glynn, reckons the week off did not help as it disrupted his young sides momentum last weekend as they lost out 2-0 at home to Limerick following no action the previous week. Prior to that they had defeated both Finn Harps (1-0) in the EA Sports Cup and Wexford Youths (5-3) in the league.

“I think the week off doesn’t help you, especially if you have built up a bit of momentum with two wins on the bounce, but we probably made too much of a point of it leading up to last week’s game and it was in our minds too much. We were well below par last week but there is nothing like a defeat to focus the mind again.”

Glynn got the chance to watch Friday nights opposition on Tuesday as he attended Athlone’s 1-0 win over Finn Harps “In fairness to Mike Kerley he has taken over a difficult job, but having watched them in mid-week they now have nine points after scoring just three goals, so that must be some sort of record in the league. You have to take you hat off to them and say well done.”  

“We’ll be going down there on Friday night and facing a big challenge for us as they are now two points ahead of us, so we’ll be looking for the win that will see us leapfrog them again.”

On his own team for Friday night Glynn is happy to have an almost full squad available for the trip to the midlands venue “we have no major or fresh injury worries to report and Jason Molloy returns from suspension which is a plus, so we should have a strong squad for the game.”

Jason Molloy returns from a one match suspension for four yellow cards, while David Goldbey and Damien O’Rourke are doubts, while David O’Brien who had started the season so well should return from injury for the game.

Athlone boss Mike Kerley will be missing Gary Higgins and Jamie Carr who are both recovering from hamstring injuries while Niall Scullion is rated as 50/50 to be fit suffered a concussion against Finn Harps on Tuesday night.

But the prospect of winning three league games on the spin for the first time in ten years will be the motivation for his young squad.

Athlone Town
Injured: Gary Higgins, Jamie Carr.
Doubtful: Niall Scullion.
Suspended: None.

Mervue United
Injured: Damien O'Rourke.
Doubtful: None.
Suspended: None.
Unavailable: Mike Elwood (work commitments).

Referee: Rob Rogers.

Paddy Power Odds: Athlone 6/5; Draw 9/4; Mervue 15/8.

Extratime prediction: A 1-1 draw.