Place still hopes Cleary will stay until end of season

Left back Brian Cleary looks ready to become the latest Athlone Town player to part company with the club. In a season which has seen an enormous amount of transfer activity at Lissywoollen, Cleary would become the 11th player to part company with the club since the start of the campaign. Cleary, who played for Ireland at the World Student Games earlier this year, has told the club he cannot commit for the remainder of the season after recently returning to college in Limerick. The defender didn't feature in last weekend's 6-1 loss against Limerick, but manager Brendan Place is hoping to convince Cleary to stay on board for the remaining eight matches. Place said: "Brian has said he won't be able to commit to us for the rest of the season after returning to college, but I'd certainly like him to reconsider and help the team until the end of the season. "In fairness, Brian committed to the full season when he signed for us and it would be very disappointing to lose him at this point. I'm still hoping to talk him into staying on board. The club need him and his team-mates need him." Place also slammed his team for failing to deal with 'basic straight long balls' against Limerick. "We have to learn to be more assertive when defending. We failed to deal with basic straight long balls. We've had a problem with this type of thing all season. I tried very hard to find an assertive, experienced centre half and must have made a hundred phone calls in a bid to find the right character but it never came off. We have shipped far too many goals from set-pieces. Our results certainly haven't been good of late and I was hoping we could be settled in mid-table at this stage of the season. But we have to bounce back and immediately," said Place. Athlone are eleven points clear of bottom placed Kildare County and will more than likely do just about enough to avoid the threat of relegation. However, local supporters are very worried at the side's recent lack of form and Brendan Place admits it's not what's expected. "I was confident of being in mid-table at this stage and in a far better position. A couple of wins, which we so easily could have, would see us in a far better position. I certainly don't want us to be in this position but we have eight games left - five of which are at home - and I certainly believe we have more than enough to see us through," said Place. "We are not happy to lose so many games of late and certainly not happy to concede six goals. But we need to show some character and resolve. We have to keep going," he added. Athlone's bid for more league points doesn't get easier this weekend when Waterford Utd, seven points off top spot, visit Lissywoollen on Saturday. Robbie Hamm and Austin Skelly are both suspended for the game while there are also major doubts about goalkeeper Alex O'Reilly's fitness after he was taken off through injury at the halfway point in last weekend's 6-1 drubbing. Meanwhile, assistant manager Padraig Moran has signed for local junior club St Peter's as a player. This, according to Place, will not affect Moran's duties as Athlone assistant manager. In another move on the local junior scene, former Athlone and Galway Utd midfielder Colin Fortune has joined boyhood club Willow Park.