U-14 League

Athlone travelled to Rosemount on Monday 22nd July to take on the local side in the county league. Athlone, short the services of six players namely John Connellan, Joseph Benson, Darren Sammon, Trevor Mullen, Martin Hynes and Eoin Jordan, started poorly and found themselves in arrears at half-time by two points.

A number of positional switches during the break and the introduction of Thomas Egan at corner back changed the entire game in Athlone's favour. While Rosemount were first to score in the second half, the next 20 minutes saw Athlone score an unanswered 3 - 4 before Rosemount registered their only green flag of the match. Points were traded by both sides until Man of the Match, Daniel Grehan added the final goal to bring his personal tally to an impressive 4 - 2. Athlone were victorious at the final whistle by eight points, the score being 4 - 10 to 1 - 11.

This match gave a lot of the squad players an opportunity to parade their talents over the full hour and, judging by some of the displays, there will be plenty of competition for team places.

Athlone: Aidan O'Dea, John O'Toole, Stephen Keegan, Jack Keegan, Shane O'Neill, Andrew Healy, Noel Mulligan, Daniel Cochrane, Alan Gaughan, Kevin Murray, Simon Mulvihill, Craig Tone, David Egan, Daniel Grehan and Daniel Kenny. Substitutions: Thomas Egan for Jack Keegan and Eanna Mac Conmhara for John O'Toole.

U-12 League

On Monday evening 22nd July last, Athlone made the short hop to neighbours Garrycastle to do battle in the county league. On a damp evening the match opened tentatively and it took a while for both teams to find their rhythm. The opening half proved to be a close affair with little or nothing between the sides, Garrycastle shading things on the scoreboard by a margin of two points, scoreline reading 0 - 7 to 0 - 5.

Athlone opened the second half scoring with a Jaydene Nicell point but then disaster struck not once, not twice but three times as the Athlone rearguard suffered a collective bout of the jitters which saw Garrycastle score three very soft goals in the space of four minutes. To their credit Athlone rallied and brought the match to the hosts and with the help of goals from Andrew Lynam and Robert Benson narrowed the lead to two points with minutes remaining on the clock. But try as they might they could not get the all important winning scores as the home defence stood firm to hold out at the final whistleby a mere two points. Final scoreline was: Garrycastle 3 - 7 Athlone 2 - 8. This proved to be an entertaining match with both young sides serving up some quality football, Athlone will take great comfort for the manner of their comeback and by the fact that they kept their opponents scoreless for the final twenty minutes.

Athlone panel and scorers: Daniel Qualter, Kevin Pigott, Mark McBride, Sean Dowling, Brian Mulvihill, Robert Mahon, Jason Merrigan, David Fagan, John Egan, Conor Guinan,Jaydene Nicell, Robert Benson, Kevin Horan, Peter Warby, Shane Kilroy-Glynn, Andrew Lynam, Brendan Fagan and David Egan.

Fruitless Journey

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