Athlone Town 0 - 3 Waterford United

• Simon O'Gorman
• Sun, May 22 2011


Athlone Town were well and truly outclassed at Lisseywoollen on Saturday night as goals from Willie John Kiely, David Breen and Paul Murphy gave a rampant Waterford United their biggest win of the season.

It’s difficult to emphasise quite how dominant Waterford were throughout this game but it can be safely stated that had they doubled their score they would not have been flattered. And the tone was set early when Willie John Kiely ran diagonally onto a ball from Paul Murphy and clipped a finely judged shot over Michael Schlingermann and into the Athlone net.

On the right side of midfield Murphy was superb throughout for the visitors. Always calm on the ball, he managed to be both bullish and elegant at once and was a constant source of inspiration as Waterford stroked the ball about in impressive fashion.

Athlone efforts lacked the sophistication of their opponents but Bobby Tier created a moment of his own on eleven minutes, hooking an overhead shot on target and forcing an athletic save from Kevin Burns.

But, after 25 minutes, Waterford raised the bar with some wonderful football. Again it was Murphy who started the move, working his way down the right and playing in a firm low ball that Gary Keane stepped over, allowing David Breen to clatter a shot on target from 20 yards. Schlingermann reacted marvellously, springing to his left to parry ball away and recovered rapidly to block Kiely’s rasping effort from the rebound. So it was somewhat cruel that the subsequent corner, delivered by Conor Sinnott, was headed cleanly home by Breen to put Waterford two up.

Six minutes later Kiely touched a clever ball to Murphy whose swerving low shot from all of 30 yards very nearly deceived Schlingermann. Pressure from the visitors continued and three minutes from half time Murphy almost scored again, set up this time by a lightening break down the left by Dwayne Wilson.

Athlone made two changes at the break but to little effect. Alex Gardiner and Ian Sweeney entered the fray as almost the entire home team shifted about to accommodate them. Instead it was Waterford’s half time sub, Brian Nolan, who made an impact, crossing to the back post on 51 minutes for Murphy to poke a shot past Schlingermann to remove any doubt about where the three points were going.

On the hour Schlingermann came to Athlone’s rescue again, producing his second double save of the game. First he stopped a bullet strike from Sinnott before managing to turn away Murphy’s follow up. Sinnott should have added a fourth six minutes later as too many Athlone bodies watched a stray ball forward, allowing the playmaker to march through unchallenged, only to blast his shot high over Schlingermann’s bar.

Waterford’s motivation faded over the final quarter as their dominance became a matter of absolute fact. Sinnott retired having taken a knock, more a precaution than a necessity, and although Tommy Barrett looped a header narrowly over their crossbar with Burns beaten, Waterford strolled through to the final whistle.

Stephen Henderson will be delighted to have seen his men open up the second series of league games on such a positive note and the travelling support might still find room to dream having witnessed the kind of form that their team generally failed to produce over the opening third of the season.

Athlone boss Mike Kerley, on the other hand, finds himself with an extraordinarily young squad that are starting to look their age.

Athlone Town: Michael Schlingermann; Joe Woods, Jamie Carr, Paul Danaher, Darren Young (Alex Gardiner, 46); Ronan Stack (Ian Sweeney, 46), Stephen Relihan (Eoin Monaghan, 77), Kevin Horan, Bobby Tier, Kevin Williamson; Tommy Barrett.
Subs not used: Scott Gaynor (GK), Roy King, Brian Gill.

Bookings: T Barrett (16), Williamson (62).
Sendings Off: None.

Waterford United: Kevin Burns; Michael Coady, Kenny Browne, Kevin Murray, Seamus Long; Paul Murphy, David Breen (Shane Barrett, 82), Conor Sinnott (Gary Dunphy, 74), Dwayne Wilson; Willie John Kiely, Gary Keane (Brian Nolan, 46).
Subs not used: Paul Carey, Shane Dempsey.

Bookings: G Dunphy (82), Wilson (84).
Sendings Off: None.

extratime.ie Man of the Match: Paul Murphy.
Referee: Keith Callinan.
Attendance: 200 (estimate).