A competitive affair ultimately produced little as neither Cobh Ramblers nor Athlone Town managed to find the back of the net in their First Division meeting at St Colmans Park tonight.

Both teams had decent chances throughout the game, but nothing concrete. The main talking point may be the officiating, as Ramblers had multiple penalty chances waved away and saw Charlie Lyons sent off.

Cobh finished with nine men, after Ben O'Riordan was dismissed in the closing minutes, following a foul on Glen McAuley.

Athlone started the brighter of the two sides. Tunmise Sobowale in particular had a good first half. Two minutes in, he created the first chance of the game, bursting down the right and firing a low drilled cross into the Cobh area. Conor Barry got on the end of it, but his effort was comfortably over.

Five minutes later Cobh nearly found themselves behind again. They gave the ball away sloppily at the back and Glen McAuley pounced. The former Liverpool man cut onto his left and sought the bottom left corner, but Sean Barron got down and pushed it wide.

Around the twenty minute mark Cobh decided it was their turn to have a good chance. Danny O’Connell burst into the area, looking for space on the left hand side. He diverted course to take the chance on his right, bending one towards the top right of Schligermann’s net. His effort went just wide of the post, however.

Next great chance came right before the break from Darren Murphy. A corner for Cobh resulted in the ball falling for anyone in the box and it was Murphy who tried his luck, latching onto it with his left foot. His effort sailed over however.

The first fifteen minutes of the second half produced little entertainment but it got interesting again after the hour mark. Schlingermann produced two good successive saves before a major talking point came. Ian Turner in the Athlone box had his back turned to goal with the ball at his feet and while attempting to turn went down. The referee felt there wasn’t enough contact and waved away any penalty shouts.

With just over 20 minutes to go Cobh had another shout. The ball was floated inside and a scrum went up in the air to claim the ball. The ball passed but Cobh felt there had been a foul. Ben O’Riordan was booked for his complaints, which would prove costly.

Momentum swung away from Cobh in the 73^rd minute when Charlie Lyons saw red. Lyons under little duress from Glen McAuley attempted to play a ball back to Barron. His ball was poor and McAuley pounced, drawing a last man foul from Lyons. The ref had little choice here.

James Doona had Athlone’s best chance of the second half when he cut onto his right foot, but his effort was pushed wide by Barron, capping off what might be a man of the match performance from the Cobh shot stopper.

Nathan O’Connell nearly became the late hero on the brink of injury time when he cut onto his right after a beautiful switch from Turner. Schlingermann stayed calm however, and dealt with the shot straight at him.

A costly moment came in injury time when McAuley once again was through. O’Riordan fouled him on the edge of the area and received a second yellow. The ensuing free deflected off the wall and went just wide, which proved to be the final kick of the game.

Draw doesn’t benefit either side really. Both needed a win to keep pace in the promotion race, but dropped points. Cobh face Cork in the real capital derby next week and will have to do so without their main centre half pairing. Athlone on the other hand head to the UCD Bowl and manager Adrian Carberry will hope tonight was enough to dispel the midweek rumours.