Athlone Town -v- Wexford Youths

• Simon O'Gorman
• Fri, Jul 01 2011


Athlone Town entertain Wexford Youths in the Airtricity First Division at Lisseywoollen on Friday night. (Kick off, 7.45pm)

With both of these sides struggling at the lower end of the division it should come as no surprise that their recent statistics are not overly impressive. Athlone have won only one of their last eight league games while Wexford are on a run of six straight league defeats.

But Athlone boss, Mike Kerley, has made significant additions to his playing staff over recent weeks and while his team lost 2-0 to Shelbourne last weekend, their performance was no disgrace. New arrival Jason Hughes looked like a lively customer and with Noel McGee recently restored to Athlone colours the odds are that more goals will be forthcoming in the latter half of the season.

Wayne Colbert and Mark Sherlock (who came on as a substitute against Shels) also performed well and the hope must be that Athlone will improve on a points total that stands at just 16 from a possible 48.

However, Kerley will have to plan for Friday’s game without Garry Higgins and Mark Walsh who are both injured, while Declan Fallon is also unavailable due to personal reasons. Conor Kavanagh, Tommy Barrett and Niall Scullion are also doubts as they sat out training during the week and any one of these, should they fail to make the game, would be a significant loss.

Wexford will also be encouraged by their most recent performance as a strong second half showing against promotion hopefuls Limerick last Friday night wasn’t quite enough to defeat. A late own goal saw them go down 3-2 at Ferrycarrig Park at a time when the Youths were holding their own and even pushing for a winner.

Manager Noel O’Connor will be without striker David Grincell on Friday night but he does hope to have defender Anthony Russell back in action. “Athlone are going to be a difficult side”, he said. “They invested heavily in the transfer window... we know a lot of their players and we saw the performance they put in against Shelbourne last week, we will be looking to take something out of the game.”

O’Connor has a couple of new faces as well with Tom Elmes and Robert Vickers returning to the Wexford colours along with the signing of Mark Phelan. Expect these sides to be well matched with little, if anything, separating them come full time.

Athlone Town
Injured: Garry Higgins, Mark Walsh.
Doubtful: Conor Kavanagh, Tommy Barrett, Niall Scullion.
Unavailable: Declan Fallon.
Suspended: None.

Wexford Youths
Injured: David Grincell.
Doubtful: None.
Suspended: None.

Referee: Rob Daly.
Paddy Power Odds: Athlone 11/10; Draw 11/5; Wexford 9/4.
Extratime prediction: A 1-1 draw.