Lennon hopes new Athlone manager will be in place soon
Dermot Lennon says he will remain as Athlone Town’s interim manager for as long as needed - but he hopes a new manager will be in place soon.
Athlone came extremely close to recording their first win of the season against Treaty United last Friday night, with the Limerick visitors requiring a late goal to secure a 1-1 draw (see report in this week's Westmeath Independent).
Lennon is the club’s director of football and is juggling that role with being interim manager, following the departure of Martin Russell.
Asked about the managerial situation after the Treaty game, Lennon told the Westmeath Independent: “It will depend. The reality of it is I have a different role within the club. If the right candidate comes along and the quicker the better, I will step back.”
“The club doesn’t want to rush into anything. We have the bodies and the coaches here at the moment. The long term view is that a manager will come in, and my own opinion would be sooner rather than later. But if it’s not the right candidate, there is no point. I’ll be in the role as long as I’m needed; that’s the bottom line,” he continued.
As to whether the recent spell has been hectic, Lennon said “I’m around the place anyway. We’ve plenty of help with the coaches, they’ve all pitched in. I’m here as manager for as long as it’s needed. We’re happy to get something out of it tonight.”
Reflecting on last Friday night’s game itself, Lennon said: “We played very well, we rode our luck at times too. Treaty are a very experienced team, they have been together for a while. We’re a young group and we’re very happy with the performance. We are disappointed we didn’t win it when we were a goal up, but I think Treaty would be disappointed if they didn’t get something out of the game.
“We have four or five lads who are experienced. The rest of the group are very young. It’s difficult for them, some of them haven’t been getting games. We are happy to get something on the board tonight.”
Lennon was understandably pleased with how his two young centre-backs performed. “Aaron McBride, he’s here since he was 16, and young Andy Spain has come in this year. They were very good tonight. They are only kids; they would only have about eight League of Ireland games played between the two of them. I thought they were tremendous. Enda Curran (Treaty United striker) is a very experienced player and a very big, physical lad.
“It’s a big learning curve for these young lads and they stood up to it. You’re disappointed to concede a late goal but I thought, for the main part, we were very good. The right-full tonight doesn’t normally play there, he’s a midfield player. We are very happy with the lads. They are a credit to the club. They have been down on their luck of late. A bit of naivety in the end and we ran out of legs as well. We had seven U-19 lads on the bench, and it wasn’t a game to start throwing young lads into,” said Lennon.
The one substitution Lennon did make worked a treat, however, with Success Edogun scoring just a minute after he replaced Carlton Ubaezuonu.
“We practised that all week!” said Lennon with a smile. “Success is a big lad and he’s an impact player. Sometimes you make substitutions and they work, and sometimes they don’t. Carlton had put in a great shift, both attacking and defensively, and he couldn’t get in on goal and then Success come on and gets one straight away. It would have been great if we had held on.”
Cobh Ramblers 3 Athlone Town 2
Following the 1-1 draw with Treaty, Athlone made the long trip to St Colman’s Park to face Cobh Ramblers on Monday last. Cobh emerged as 3-2 winners with Beineon O’Brien Whitmarsh scoring two goals for the Cork club
O’Brien Whitmarsh put Cobh ahead in added time at the end of the first half. Glen McAuley equalised within a minute of the restart, but O’Brien Whitmarsh restored Cobh’s lead from the penalty spot a couple of minutes later.
Conor Drinan doubled Cobh’s advantage on 62 minutes and though Stephen Kenny pulled one way back with an 89th-minute penalty (with Cobh’s Harlain Mbayo receiving a red card), Athlone were unable to grab an equaliser.
Athlone’s next league outing is at home to Wexford on Friday week, April 29.