Cork City fall to another away defeat as Athlone Town preserve playoff hopes
Sean Maguire, Cork City FC, scored the Leesiders' only goal during the defeat to Athlone Town. Picture: Jim Coughlan.
Despite fielding a side almost exclusively made up of first team regulars, Cork City fell to a disappointing defeat against promotion-chasing Athlone Town away from home on Friday night.
Barry Robson’s side could have no complaints with this one, they struggled to create many clear-cut opportunities in both halves, but especially in the latter period when they required a goal to get back on level terms.
“Frustrated, it was pretty much a carbon copy of last week, total control of the game,” Robson said after the defeat. “I think they were in our box once in the second half, but without us really looking threatening to score a goal.
I think a lot of changes in the team obviously again, which is understandable, and I'm finding out a lot more about players and I'm seeing a lot more which is a good thing for next season.
“I think it's two poor goals defensively for us,” he explained. “We deserved to lose that, because our defensive structure wasn't good.
“We've mixed the defence up a lot recently as well so we've lost a bit of rhythm there but it's still frustrating from my point of view. The positive thing is we had big Denzell [Obenge] on, we got a look in for another 25 minutes, a young kid coming through.
“We got Ike [Manjor-Georgewill] on the pitch which was great, we got him on for 30 minutes tonight which is really good. Obviously big Luke Downey, he’s got another 65 minutes, so all these younger players it's just been good to get a look at them. Brody Lee came on for another 35 minutes.”
City had conceded twice in the opening spell, but failed to create any quality opportunities in the second half. Substitute Obenge had a remotely decent chance after 81 minutes following a Joe Aidoo cross, but the 19-year-old’s headed effort was easy for Brendan Clarke to deal with.
That summed City’s evening up.
Brian McManus and Jonathan Kehir were outstanding for the hosts, who made certain they would not be slipping in their bid to secure a promotion playoff spot.
While the win did little for Athlone’s league position – as they remain seventh in the table – they now sit tied with Kerry FC and midlands rivals Longford on 48 points.
The battle for the playoff spots is going down to the wire, and Athlone will be delighted to have kept up in the race, but the champions will be bitterly disappointed with their display here.
They fell behind early, Will Smith finishing beautifully to the corner after David Odumosu made an initial save, but the Athlone forward did well to find his balance and get the shot away, leaving it 1-0 after six minutes.
City did enjoy spells of possession and control over the next half hour as they went in search of an equaliser, but the hosts ran a tight ship at the back, and space would prove hard to come by.
They continued to press on and eventually found the breakthrough. Seani Maguire and Ruairi Keating had stitched together a good passage of play, but Maguire’s pass to his strike partner was intercepted and cleared as far as Rory Feely.
Feely worked a one-two with Bolger, then launched a cross in from a long way out, and it curled beautifully to the back post where Maguire was ready and waiting to punish a lapse in concentration from the hosts.
However, parity would prove short lived, as Athlone continued to mount pressure on the visitors and found their second goal shortly before the break, as Robbie Lyons laid one off for Callum Cleary, who curled it into the top corner from the edge of the box with 38 minutes gone.
For all the possession City had enjoyed at that point they still trailed, and the second half gave way to another 45 minutes of watching Leesiders struggle to create anything of note, as they fell to defeat.
Clarke; Connolly, Kehir, E O’Connor, K O’Connor; Lyons (Connolly 71), McManus; Smith, Cleary (Lawless 88), Lomboto; Grogan (Ferry HT).
Odumosu; Feely, Kelleher, Downey (Mpongo 55); Fitzpatrick (Manjor-Georgewill 55), O’Keeffe (Aidoo 74), Bolger (Lee 55), Crowley, Drinan; Keating (Obenge 65), Maguire.
A Patchell
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