Match Preview: Athlone Town vs Cork City

Cork City travel to face Athlone Town on Friday evening in the 17th round of Men’s First Division action. The Rebel Army make the trip up to the Midlands six points clear at the top of the table (with a game in hand), following back-to-back victories against UCD and Longford Town that corrected a three-game winless run before then. Athlone, meanwhile, occupy fifth spot, sandwiched between Wexford and Cobh on goal difference, with all three teams on 22 points.  

This is the second in a string of three successive away matches for City, in part due to the rearranged clash against Treaty United being scheduled for Monday the 25th of May. Barry Robson’s men started this triplet of games as they mean to continue, by virtue of a 2-0 win last Saturday in Longford. After the home side were reduced to ten men early on, Conor Drinan grabbed his third goal of the campaign before Darragh Crowley put the seal on the points in stoppage time.  

Conor Brann, who received a call-up to the senior Ireland squad for the upcoming friendlies against Qatar and Canada, secured his fifth clean sheet of the season. City’s defensive numbers are currently the strongest in the division by a notable margin, having conceded 11 goals across 15 matches, four fewer than the next lowest (Longford’s 15).   

At the other end, the attacking output is the joint-highest alongside UCD and Bray Wanderers, with the division’s top three teams all having found the net 26 times this season (albeit City have played a game less). Individually, Seani Maguire leads the scoring charts with eight and is the only player in the league to have scored more than Hans Mpongo’s tally of seven. 

The Manager’s Words: 

Speaking on the eve of the game, Barry Robson noted the prospect of a “really young bench” for his team at the Athlone Town Stadium, due to a number of fitness concerns regarding senior players on which a decision will have to be made early on Friday morning. He also revealed that both Josh Fitzpatrick and Matthew Kiernan will be “out for a while” beyond this weekend.  

Nevertheless, the City boss did not want to look too far beyond the trip to Westmeath, reiterating that “the main target is the next game, that’s the most important thing for me and for the players; to give full attention to the opponents we’ve got coming next because the games are hard enough.” The Scot reinforced the need to not take any opponent lightly, describing how “we’ve all seen the organisation and the fitness of the teams we’re coming up against, it’s difficult. We need to find ways of trying to open teams up and create chances – the players have done that, but we still want to improve and get better. We’ve been here a couple of months, that’s all, and you can see the players are adapting well and taking on the information, it takes a while.” 

Robson also remarked on Conor Brann’s international call-up, even mentioning a phone conversation he had with Ireland manager Heimir Halgrimsson about the keeper, before stating: “We’re delighted for him… what he needs to do is keep improving and it’ll give him a really good insight into what elite environments look like, so that can always help him. Mark McNulty has been working really hard with him here, he’s taking everything on board and he’s still a young goalkeeper, still got a lot to learn and we’re here to help him.” 

The Opposition View: 

Athlone come into Friday’s game in quite patchy form, as has largely been the tale of their season so far. Their wins have tended to come in spurts, with three in the first five matches, immediately followed by three successive defeats, then three wins in four, before their most recent four-game winless streak.  

Across these last four, the Town have drawn three and lost one whilst only scoring a single goal across that period. The 1-0 defeat they suffered in Cobh last week was the sixth occasion in which they have failed to score this season. 

Fans of the Midlands club can, anyway, be content with their team’s trajectory this season, given that they have already exceeded last year’s points tally (22 compared to 20). Ian Ryan’s men will be aiming for a final position this time out more reflective of the 4th and 5th place finishes that preceded the disappointing 10th place last term.  

The Town’s squad is, like many in the First Division, distinctly youthful in its make-up. Of the 15 players that featured at St Colman’s Park a week ago, only centre-back Evan O’Connor (25) was above the age of 24. Their top scorer this season is 18-year-old Cillian Tollett with four, having arrived from Galway in February.  

Head-to-Head: 

The reverse fixture between these two teams in late March ended in a 4-1 triumph for City at Turner’s Cross thanks to goals from Hans Mpongo, Conor Drinan, Greg Bolger and AJ Bridge. The recent clashes in Athlone have told a markedly different story however, the Town winning each of the last three meetings in Westmeath, dating back to October 2022.  

In the 2024 campaign, the only two games City lost across the entirety of the season both came at the Athlone Town Stadium. It is a record Robson’s side will be seeking to put right on Friday evening as they aim to preserve, if not extend, their six-point advantage at the top. Kick off in Athlone is at 7:45pm.