Athlone Town travel to the Markets Field on Friday evening for another difficult SSE Airtricity League First Division assignment against runaway leaders Limerick FC.
Martin Russell’s Limerick outfit have won 10 matches on the spin, scoring 43 goals in the process. Proudly protecting a flawless record, Limerick will be expected to defeat Athlone, who have only registered seven points in the campaign so far.
Last Saturday evening Limerick beat Cobh Ramblers 3-0 at St Colman’s Park leaving Russell clearly impressed: “Cobh is a tough place to go, I thought we put in a very professional performance,” he said. “We defended when we had to defend and we kept a clean sheet. We were pleased to score three away goals. Considering we were down five players that would be in and around the first team just shows we have a decent squad for this division.”
On Friday, Athlone took the lead against Drogheda United at Lissywollen courtesy of Conor Barry’s third goal of the season, but the Boynesiders recovered. Aaron Molloy and Sean Thornton scored for the visitors, who eked out a valuable win. Limerick boss Russell reckons the Athlone encounter could be a tricky one for his high-flying side. “We just have to take each game as they come,” Russell said. “We want to try to win them and to try to perform well.
“Now that we have Cobh out of the way, we look forward to Athlone at the Markets Field. Again, we have to try to put on one of those Markets Field performances that we have been doing since we have been in there. We try to attack teams and to play well. That will be our focus. I’m fully aware that Athlone, like all the other teams, will want to be the ones to stop Limerick.”
