- Paul Corcoran
- Sat, Jun 29 2019
Paul Corcoran reports from Éamonn Deacy Park
A balmy evening in the West saw Galway United play out a 1-1 draw with Athlone Town on Friday night in the First Division.
Wilson Waweru opened the scoring in the first half with a well taken goal, but Athlone Town earned their equaliser in controversial fashion when they were awarded a penalty midway through the second half.
Dean Williams strolled the ball home to earn a point for the Midlands side – their second in a row.
Athlone went close in the 8th minute when Dean Casey took the ball down the left flank before finding Shane Dunne on the penalty spot, but he couldn’t keep the header down and it went over the head of Kevin Horgan.
Galway United had an effort saved by Myles in the 13th minute after Gavin Kearney took Dara Costelloe down just outside the box. Ludden stepped up to strike the ball and it bobbled along the ground past the wall, but Aaron Myles was able to get down to smother it.
In the 26thminute Athlone were almost gifted a goal after a horrendous defensive error from Mark Hannon when the midfielder blindly played the ball across his own box. Donal Higgins did his best to recover the ball, but he missed a defensive tackle and Shane Dunne had a great chance to pull the trigger from close range, Kevin Horgan came to the rescue however and smothered the effort.
The home side took the lead after the half hour mark through Wilson Waweru. The young midfielder took a simple pass from Costelloe after a great run from Marc Ludden to take the ball into the final third.
Waweru turned and took a touch to set it up and unleashed a stunning strike into the back of the net to put the home side ahead.
Shortly after the re-start Galway United should have taken the lead through Vinny Faherty. Chris Horgan played a lovely ball from deep down the right flank and found the head of the experienced striker, the header was directed to close to Myles for the easy save, however.
An error from Ivan Gamarra allowed Athlone Town another effort on goal. Dean Williams was the benefactor from the below par defending and he could have brought the visitors level from close range but again Kevin Horgan denied Athlone a goal.
The visitors got their equaliser in the 66th minute through a controversial penalty call, with Cian Murphy deemed the perpetrator. Dean Williams made no mistake and slotted the ball into the left corner.
With 73 minutes gone Galway were made rue another chance on goal. Marc Ludden struck a lovely cross in from the right towards the head of Dara Costelloe, the young winger could not get his head over the ball and nodded over the bar.
In the last ten minutes Jack Lynch, making his first home appearance for Galway, had his head in his hands after he blazed a great chance over the bar from close range.
Marc Ludden got the ball into the box with an excellent long throw, but his teammate could not take advantage of the gilt-edged chance.
In the dying minutes it was the visitors who could have left with the three points. Dean Williams had another effort on goal after a well worked move by Athlone. Kevin Horgan was once again able to make an excellent save to keep ensure the sides shared the points.
Galway United: Kevin Horgan; Christopher Horgan, Marc Ludden, Cian Murphy, Jack Lynch; Conor Melody, Wilson Waweru (Conor Barry, 81), Mark Hannon (Ivan Gamarra, 45), Dara Costelloe (Conor Layng, 81), Donal Costelloe; Vinny Faherty.
Subs not used: James Tierney, Ronan Asgari, Shane Doherty, Joshua Keane-Quinlivan.
Booked: Wilson Waweru (36), Cian Murphy (58), Jack Lynch (90).
Athlone Town: Aaron Myles; Dean Casey, Gavin Kearney (Jamie Hamilton, 59), Shane Dunne, Dean Williams, Kealan Dillon, Eoghan Morgan (Aaron Brilly, 78), John Morgan, Rhys Gorman, Evan Pierce (Darren Meenan, 55), Paddy Kelly.
Subs not used: Aaron Shanahan, Ciaran Grogan, Shane Stokes, Dean George.
Booked: Shane Dunne (75).
Referee: Garvin Taggart.
Extratime.ie Player of the Match: Kevin Horgan (Galway United).
Attendance: 621.
