Athlone Town to kick off new season with derby duel
Athlone Town begin their SSE Airtricity League First Division campaign with a derby clash away to old rivals Longford Town this Saturday (kick-off at Bishopsgate is 7.30pm).
With Dermot Lennon serving a suspension carried over from last season, Athlone co-manager and first team coach Gordon Brett will take sole charge for Saturday night’s game.
Athlone warmed up for the First Division opener with a Leinster Senior Cup clash against Drogheda United last Friday. Two goals from Darragh Markey secured a 2-0 victory for the Louth side at Weavers Park.
Oisin Duffy from Ballinasloe captained Athlone Town in last Friday night’s game.
Athlone have lost Thomas Oluwa (who has joined Waterford) and Andy Spain (Treaty United) from last season’s squad.
But there is a strong core of last year’s squad still at Lissywollen, including goalkeepers Enda Minogue and Vlad Velikin, centre-half Aaron McBride and attacking midfielder Valerii Dolia. In addition, Charles Mutawe, Aaron Connolly, Adam Lennon and Patrick Hickey have returned for the 2023 season.
Athlone finished second from bottom of last year's nine-team First Division. But having only registered a single point from their opening eight games when Martin Russell was in charge, the fact that Athlone finished seven points above bottom-placed Cobh Ramblers was a sign of the progress made, with the midlanders producing a strong finish to the season.
Indeed, Athlone claimed wins over 2022 First Division champions Cork City, third placed Galway United and Longford Town (who finished fourth) towards the end of last season.
And Aaron Connolly believes Athlone can build on the progress they made last year.
“We finished the season well last year so I think the main goal for this year was to try and keep the same strong core group we had,” the midfielder told extratime.com in a recent interview.
When Dermot Lennon took over last season, with Gordon Brett subsequently joining the set-up, Connolly said they “stripped it back to basics and we worked from there”.
“Dermot is from Athlone and when he came in, it gave us a sense of why we were there. It helped with the Longford derby games because you know what it meant to them. It bled through the squad and it was contagious,” said Connolly, when speaking to extratime.com.
“Oisin Duffy and Adam Lennon are both locals, plus a few of the under-19s.
“You can tell straight away and it feeds into the other players and you can see what it means.”
And Connolly insists Athlone should be aiming to reach the play-offs this season.
“I think you have to put the pressure on to get into the play-offs. If not, what’s the point? We’re aiming for that,” added the Kildare native.