Athlone dig deep to defeat DLR

Athlone Town held out for all three points to claim an 1-0 win against the odds over the DLR Waves in their Women’s National League clash tonight.

Despite not necessarily having the majority of chances or possession, Athlone made whatever they had count, unlike the visitors. A first half Roisin Molloy strike was enough to seal the deal.

On a night where hammerings had been handed out twice already in the WNL, this game was an exception. You’d be forgiven for thinking that this would be end to end however after two minutes.

Carla McManus had the ball played into her and took it in stride, before firing near post at Niamh Coombes. Athlone’s keeper had it at a nice height however and palmed the shot away.

Athlone had their first half chance just before the ten minute mark when Emily Corbet was played through. Eve Badana showed solid decision making, coming off her line and playing as a sweeper keeper to clear the ball.

The best chance arrived just after the half hour mark through Rachel Doyle. Just inside the left hand side of the box, she teed the ball up before sending it goal-ward. Her effort hit the bar, keeping it scoreless.

The games deciding goal was scored five minutes later. Emily Corbet played a ball across to Rosin Molloy. Molloy seemed to be falling as she hit her effort, but it hit the underside of the bar before bouncing back up into the roof of the net. It was against the run of play, but Athlone did not care.

Twenty minutes after the restart, Graham Kelly rolled the dice, making a triple sub. One of these subs, Shauna Carroll, posed a newfound threat.

On two occasions in the five minutes she came on, she came in from the left to meet crosses from the right. She just couldn’t get the contact on either one however.

In the 75^th minute Niamh Prior played a brilliant through ball to Avril Brierley, but Coombes displayed good decision making and was off her line to collect.

For the final fifteen, the visitors applied pressure. This mostly came in the form of crosses being sent into the Athlone box. Whether it was good defending, the offside flag going up or failure to meet the delivery, Waves couldn’t get that equaliser.

The final whistle came and Athlone earned three impressive points, moving up to sixth in the WNL table after Bohs were well beaten by Wexford earlier.