Gavin grabs first senior goal for Athlone Town
Waterford 1 Athlone Town 2
Dylan Gavin scored his first goal for the Athlone Town senior team in last Friday night's 2-1 away win over second-placed Waterford at the Regional Sports Centre.
Having made a number of appearances as a substitute, Gavin finally got his chance to start and the former Charlton Athletic player certainly made the most of the opportunity to impress when opening the scoring.
Frantz Pierrot had Athlone’s first attempt on 13 minutes when he fired in a shot from outside the penalty area that was touched around the post. From the resulting corner, the visitors took the lead. Dan McKenna sent over the ball and it wasn’t dealt with by Sam Sargeant. The keeper came but failed to gather and Gavin did well to finish from close range.
The lead was short-lived though as the Blues were back on level terms two minutes later. Kilian Cantwell started the move to release Dean McMenamy on the right, and when he touched the ball into the path of Roland Idowu, the attacker powered a left-footed effort from 25 yards past impressive Athlone keeper Enda Minogue.
But parity lasted a mere sixty seconds. Athlone were back in front from the restart of play when a Blues attack down the left broke down. It allowed Oisin Duffy to gain possession and he sent in a right-wing cross that was headed back across goal by Valerii Dolia, Pierrot hammered a right-footed effort from 14 yards past a helpless Sargeant.
On a night when the absence of top scorer Ronan Coughlan was a major blow to Waterford, it proved the last goal of the game.
It was Athlone's first league win in Waterford since 2015, when Philip Gorman scored the winning goal.
Runaway leaders Galway United are 15 points ahead of Waterford, and 30 points ahead of Athlone in the SSE Airtricity First Division.
At present, Athlone are in fourth position and if they manage to finish fifth, it will be enough to earn a place in the play-offs. The First Division champions will earn automatic promotion to the Premier Division.
Athlone Town: Enda Minogue, Oisin Duffy, German Fuentes Rodriguez, Patrick Hickey, Jack Kavanagh, Noah Van Geenen, Jamar Campion-Hinds, Daniel McKenna, Frantz Pierrot, Valerii Dolia, Dylan Gavin. Subs: Shane Forbes for Gavin (67 mins), Donal Curtin for Kavanagh (75), Blake Ryan for Dolia (80).
Waterford: Sam Sargeant, Darragh Power, Giles Phillips, Kilian Cantwell, Ryan Burke, Niall O’Keeffe, Romeo Akachukwu, Dean McMenamy, Roland Idowu, Cameron Cresswell, Connor Parsons. Subs: Christie Pattisson for McMenamy (57 mins), Shane Griffin for Akachukwu (57), Serge Atakayi for Power (78), Sam Perry for Cantwell (86).
Referee: Chris Sheehan (Cork).