Athlone Town 0 - 0 Longford Town

• Deniese O'Flaherty
• Sun, Oct 10 2010


It finished honours even in Lissywollen as the last midlands derby of the season ended in stalemate on Saturday night.

This game is known as El Classico but it really was far from a classic. It was an extremely dour affair with the quality of football on show very poor. The result means there’s no change in the table with Longford Town still four points ahead of their midlands rivals.

On the balance of play Longford enjoyed more of the possession but they failed to really threaten the Athlone Town keeper Michael Schlingermann. They did have the ball in the back of the net in the 61st minute only for the linesman to rule it out for offside. It was a controversial decision.

In a drab first half it was Longford who started well. They created the first effort on goal in the 13thminute. Lee Roche's curling shot from just inside the box got a slight deflection off an Athlone defender and Schlingermann was able to gather. Longford goalkeeper Stephen Conlon gave supporters a fright in the 19th minute; as the ball was played in he put both hands up in an attempt to gather it but he completely missed it as the wind drove it over him and luckily for him it went wide.

In the 29thminute Longford had the best chance of the half. Don Cowan got inside the box but unfortunately for him he dragged his shot just inches wide with Schlingermann beaten. Town started the second half like they had the first and one minute after the restart Don Cowan had a fantastic chance; Cathal Brady played the ball in but the striker’s effort just went narrowly wide.

Longford thought they had finally broken the deadlock in the 61st minute but Phil Byrne’s effort was ruled out for offside. Chris Deans had played the ball to Byrne and he certainly wasn’t offside. In the 78 Declan O’Brien had a great opportunity for his side but he mis-kicked his effort and the Longford were able to clear.

Cathal Brady had a great chance for Longford in the 81st minute but his powerful long range strike whizzed just wide and one minute Austin Skelly’s effort went just wide.

As the clock ticked down Longford were the side that pushed hard to get that elusive winning goal as Athlone were happy to sit back and settle for a point. Right after the final whistle Athlone’s Declan O’Brien was sent off for remonstrating with referee Sean Grant.

Athlone Town: Schlingermann, Nolan, Collins, Breen, Broughall, Relihan, McEvoy, Moran, Haran (Skelly 65), Hughes, O’Brien.
Subs not used: McCarthy, Moloney, O’Reilly, Gaynor GK.

Longford Town: Conlon, Deans, Byrne (Mooney 83), Lester, Lee, Brady, Salmon, Hyland, A Roche (Oladele 71), Cowan, L Roche (Hynes 66).
Subs not used: Cronin, Ekanem.
Referee: S Grant (Wexford)