Longford Town let lead slip in suffering defeat against Athlone

Longford Town . . . 2   Athlone Town . . . 3

Longford should have taken the lead after eleven minutes when both Athlone centre-backs, German Fuentes Rodriguez and Noah Van Geenan,  misjudged a Shane Elworthy ball in from the right which allowed Beineon O’Brien Whitmarsh in on goal with just Athlone keeper Enda Minogue to beat but Minogue saved the Longford striker’s shot.

The visitors responded two minutes later but a shot from just outside the Longford box from defensive midfielder Patrick Hickey went wide.

Longford were the better side in the first half  but they had to wait until the thirty-first minute for their next chance. Elworthy headed the ball onto striker Magerusan but his well struck bicycle kick was straight at the Athlone keeper. 

Athlone scored the game’s opening goal against the run of play in the thirty-eighth minute. A throw-in from the right from Jamar Campion-Hinds was headed on by the towering Hickey into the path of the unmarked Valerii Dolia, and he smashed home a low drive from twelve yards to give the visitors an undeserved lead.

The home side were very dangerous attacking down the right flank and that was the source of their merited equaliser just two minutes later when Magerusan slotted home his seventh goal of the season. 

A throw-in from Dylan Hand into the Athlone box wasn’t cleared properly by Hickey and Hand ran onto the ball in directing a brave header back into the visitors' box, Magerusan made a clever diagonal run to lose his marker before sliding the ball under Athlone keeper Minogue into the net.

Athlone tried to restore their lead with two late efforts at the end of the first half. On forty-two minutes, a Dolia cross was blazed over from a good scoring position by Campion-Hinds and just before the interval a Frantz Pierrot header from a Daniel McKenna pass was straight at Longford keeper Jack Brady.

The ‘Red & Black’ almost went ahead on fifty-seven minutes when Elworthy leaped above his marker at the back post but his header from Kyle O’Connor’s curling left-wing cross went narrowly over the Athlone bar.

Longford did go ahead on sixty-five minutes when Magerusan timed his run away from his marker to perfection to power home a thunderous header from Viktor Serdeniuk’s curling free kick from the left.  

The home side went off the boil after taking the lead and this allowed the visitors to get more possession of the ball and they equalised on eighty minutes with a superb goal.

The game changer for the visitors was the introduction of substitutes Daniel Orrego and Dylan Gavin, with Gavin especially outstanding.

 Orrego whipped in a low cross from the right, another substitute Dylan Gavin cleverly stepped over the ball to catch the Longford defence  by surprise and Pierrot rifled the ball into the roof of the net.

Athlone secured all three points on eighty-eight minutes when they scored on the counter-attack. As Longford searched for the winner, the visitors broke, and Gavin played a long ball over Town defender Gavin O’Brien who found himself the wrong side of Pierrot. The Athlone striker shrugged off the challenge of O’Brien, charged into the box, kept his composure, and guided his shot beyond Brady into the bottom corner of the net.

Longford almost levelled matters in the last minute of normal time but Athlone keeper Minogue produced a superb save from Jordan Adeyemo’s close range strike.

The Town are not in action next weekend with no league games due to the FAI Cup second round fixtures. 

LONGFORD TOWN  (3-5-2):  Brady, O’Brien, Temple, Hand, Elworthy, O’Connor, Wixted, Serdeniuk, Armstrong, O’Brien Whitmarsh, Magerusan.

Subs:- Jordan Adeyemo for O’Brien Whitmarsh and Mohammed Boudiaf for Armstong (both 74 mins). 

ATHLONE TOWN (4-1-4-1): Minogue, Duffy, Rodriguez, Van Geenen, Kavanagh, Campion-Hinds, Hickey, Connolly, McKenna, Dolia, Pierrot.

Subs:- Abdikadir for Rodriguez (56 mins), Orrego for Dolia (61 mins), Gavin for Kavanagh (74 mins).