Athlone commenced their Division 1 campaign with a hard-fought draw against a determined Shandonagh side under the floodlights in Páirc Chiaráin on Friday night last.
Athlone will feel that they did enough to win the game, but a combination of wasteful finishing and a late Shandonagh rally meant that they had to be content with a share of the spoils.
Athlone started brightly and opened the scoring almost straight from the throw-in with a fine Danny Reid point after an incisive move, but erratic shooting meant that they missed several good opportunities to build on this.
Fortunately, the visitors were also struggling to get scores on the board against a tenacious Athlone defence and it took them almost 15 minutes to open their account with a point from play, although they added to this almost immediately through a close-range free. The hosts responded to regain the lead through scores from Cillian Lynn and Kieran Colclough, but Shandonagh had the final say of the half with a point to leave the sides level 0-3 apiece at the break.
The opening stages of the second half were evenly exchanged with Shandonagh’s opening score being answered by a Stephen O’Connor free, before Athlone got a major boost when with a goal from Mark Egan, after he had worked very hard to create the chance for himself.
Shandonagh kept in touch with a point, but the home side soon raised a second green flag when Cillian Lynn reacted quickest to finish after Josh Beaumont’s attempt had come back off the crossbar. This gave Athlone a double-score lead at the midway point of the half, 2-4 to 0-5 and when John Stapleton extended the lead to six points, they looked set to begin the season with a valuable win.
However, the visitors had other ideas, and dominated the closing 10 minutes to earn a draw, although they were aided by some sloppy turnovers from the home side. The first of these led to a pointed free for Shandonagh and despite Athlone winning a midfield mark from the resultant kickout, the ball was passed directly to the opposition, who took advantage of the home defence being caught out of position to get in for a crucial goal.
The visitors had all the momentum now and quickly added another score from an advanced mark to reduce the gap to the minimum. An equaliser looked inevitable, and despite them being narrowly wide from another mark, it came just on the 60th minute with an excellent score from play. This was to be the final significant action of the night and both sides had to settle for a draw after a tough, physical contest, with the final score reading Athlone 2-5 Shandonagh 1-8.
Overall, Athlone will be very happy with many aspects of their performance in their first competitive outing of the season, although they will know that there are many areas where they need to improve, especially with regards to their finishing.
Tang are the visitors to Pairc Chiaráin on Friday night (8pm ), while the club’s juniors host Coralstown-Kinnegad on Sunday morning at 11.30am.
Athlone: Darren Costello, Paddy Ryan, James Finlass, Josh Kenny, Michael Byrne, Diarmuid Martin, Owen McNamara, John Stapleton (0-1 ), Noel Mulligan, Mark Egan (1-0 ), Daniel Reid (0-1 ), Kieran Colclough (0-1 ), Cillian Lynn (1-1 ), Stephen O’Connor (0-1 ), Benny Martin Subs Used: Matty Scally, Josh Beaumont.
