TWELVE months ago Derry City travelled to Athlone expecting to go through the formalities and pick up their silverware, only to be given an unpleasant shock at St Mel's Park. Now Tony Mannion's Athlone Town side will make the return journey needing a better result than Drogheda United achieve against Sligo Rovers at United Park. Now they have done just about enough yesterday to extend their season to the last Sunday of the season, complacency is likely to be the least of their problems at the Brandywell.
Over the past) few months Athlone have closed what looked to be an impossible gap on their rivals and this win over a UCD side which had not been beaten at home in 1996 was enough to draw them level, but there was no doubting the nervousness in a side that knew only too well how close they were lingering to the automatic drop.
Early pressure on the home side quickly dried up as the visitors desperately tried to avoid conceding what might have been a very costly goal, but Athlone had a hero in the form of goalkeeper Shane Curran, while they were let off the hook more than once as the students struggled with their finishing.
UCD had, in fact, almost all of the best chances in the first half, with Ciaran Kavanagh drawing a couple of solid stops, Keddy forcing one good one with a low drive and Mick O'Byrne prompting Curran's best moment of the match when the striker finished a fine run from inside his own half with a well struck shot, which the keeper touched on to the bar.
Athlone took the lead with their first chance of the half as Dave Dowling headed home Donal Golden's corner on the half hour. The students barely had time to digest that, than the advantage was doubled when an uncharacteristic error by Packie Lynch allowed Warren Parkes in for a shot which Seamus Kelly stopped with his foot, only to watch from the ground as Tommy Gaynor knocked home the loose ball.
Jason Sherlock pulled one back eight minutes after the break when he lobbed Curran and UCD certainly had enough possession through the second half to save a point, but Athlone held on well through some protracted spells of pressure to keep their hopes of survival alive.
"Through the second half we had people telling players results, from elsewhere which didn't help things because we got a bit afraid of it," said Mannion afterwards, "but we're still in it, that's the main thing."
Completing the escape act still looks unlikely for Athlone, but the manager is well used to being written off by now and he seemed comfortable with the idea of taking on Derry on their own ground. "We're still in the position of having to hope that somebody else does us a favour, which is a pity, but we'll give it a go. When the top plays the bottom nobody ever gives you a chance, but nobody gave us a chance in some of the other matches we've won lately so we'll see how it goes.
