Coffey hasn"t left Athlone, insists Town boss Lennon

TALENTED forward Ian Coffey has not parted company with Athlone Town FC, it dramatically emerged over the course of last weekend. Just last week, the 18 year-old Ballykeeran based striker - who has featured 13 times for Athlone"s first-team this season - announced his intention to step away from the club for the 'foreseeable future'. It was widely expected Coffey would concentrate mainly on playing Gaelic football with Tubberclair for a period, while there was also much speculation locally linking him with joining a local junior soccer outfit. However, in an totally unexpected twist, Coffey turned out and scored for Colum McDaid"s newly formed Athlone Town under-20 team in a 1-1 draw with Shamrock Rovers last Saturday - ironically at the same time the first-team were in action against local rivals Longford Town in the League of Ireland First Division. Speaking to the 'Westmeath Independent' last week, Coffey said he had 'a few disagreements' with some members of the first-team squad and had decided to 'leave Athlone Town for the foreseeable future'. Athlone first-team manager Dermot Lennon this week denied there has been a bust-up between Coffey and any of the senior players at the club. Lennon had last week refused to close the door on Coffey returning to the first-team fold, while Coffey himself also said: 'I definitely wouldn"t rule out going back (to Athlone Town) at some stage'. Speaking after Athlone"s 1-1 draw with Longford Town at the weekend, Dermot Lennon said: 'I told you I wouldn"t ever close the door on Ian Coffey. He is too good a player to let go of that easily.' Lennon added: 'There"s been a lot of nonsense going around the town about Ian Coffey and the reasons he might have announced an intention to leave Athlone Town, but it"s all been total rubbish and is completely unfair on the young lad. Ian Coffey is still registered with Athlone Town until November and scored for the under-20s against Shamrock Rovers.' The Athlone manager also refused to rule out the possibility of Coffey featuring for Athlone"s first-team between now and the end of the 2008 First Division season. A gifted all around sportsman, Coffey plays club Gaelic football with Tubberclair and was also a member of this year"s Westmeath minor football team. The young striker has also just recently returned to Athlone Community College to repeat his Leaving Cert exams and is expected to play for the Community College senior team in the coming year. Earlier this year, he captained Athlone CC to the Leinster Colleges SF "A" title. Meanwhile, Dermot Lennon says his team has a major opportunity to pull away from relegation trouble when they face bottom placed Kildare County in Station Road, Newbridge on Friday (kick-off: 7.45pm). The Town are currently five points ahead of Kildare, who have a game in hand, with only nine league matches remaining. A victory for Athlone would leave them eight points clear of the Thoroughbreds with as many games left and Lennon believes that would be enough to ensure Athlone will definitely finish outside the bottom two places in the First Division. The Town boss was speaking after Athlone drew 1-1 in Flancare Park last Saturday against near neighbours Longford Town. Athlone equalised through Colm Jinks in the 86th minute after Shane Harte put Longford ahead in the 75th minute. Lennon said: 'We have a great chance to more or less bury Kildare County this weekend. There would probably be no way back for them if we win on Friday, but Kildare will be equally determined to get a victory. I believe there will be plenty of goalscoring chances in the game and we have some very good forward players who I think will prove the difference between the sides. 'I was pleased with the performance against Longford. I thought we played reasonably well and passed the ball a bit better than in recent weeks. You also have to be happy getting a draw after been 1-0 down with only 15 minutes remaining. We probably didn"t create enough chances but our effort and work-rate was very good and we certainly deserved a draw. I think we would have won the match if there was another ten minutes on the clock after we equalised. I thought we looked more determined to win the game and proved it by throwing on two further strikers for the last 25 minutes or so. We went two goals behind in our previous match against Dundalk and also came back, so you have to praise the players for sticking to the task and coming from behind again. Hopefully we will go out against Kildare with a similar mindset and win the game.'