Athlone can seal knock-out berth with victory

LOCAL outfits Athlone and Tubberclair are within touching distance of places in the knockout stages of this year's Westmeath SFC - and could take giants steps towards that point with victories this coming weekend. Athlone - with three wins from three games under their belt (six points) - are almost assured of at least a quarter-final place, but a win over struggling Coralstown-Kinnegad in Moate on Friday evening (7pm) would practically guarantee them top spot in Division 1 and a subsequent place in the semi-finals. Tubberclair, meanwhile, face pointless St Loman's on Saturday at Ballymore (5.30pm), and are currently tied on four points with Killucan and Maryland. With only the top-three teams from the six-strong group reaching the knockout phase, both sides will be super-keen to register vital wins this weekend. Athlone have so far beaten St Loman's, Tubberclair and Maryland, and confidence is high in the Páirc Ciaráin camp. With experienced defender Paul Mullen and attacker Dermot McManus close to a return from injury, their squad is also beefed up for this weekend, although John Egan continues his recovery from a long-term knee injury and missed out as a result. Manager of Athlone, Malachy Gately, knows his team are close to sealing a place in the knockout stages, but is insisting his players remain fully focused and don't slip up against Coralstown-Kinnegad, who themselves badly need a result in a bid to avoid the prospect of relegation to intermediate level. Gately said: "There's three teams breathing down our neck with four points each, so we've no room for complacency. Coralstown-Kinnegad will be wounded and they'll throw everything at us, so we have to be ready. This game could be our most dangerous one yet. In fairness to the players though, they're not getting carried away this year, and are taking each game as it comes, so hopefully we'll get another good performance and keep winning football matches." Tubberclair's have less room to manouvere, having defeated Killucan and Coralstown-Kinnegad, but then falling to defeat to group leaders Athlone. However, anything more than a defeat would keep Tom Lennon's charges on course for a place in the last eight. "There's still a lot of permutations that can occur, but all we can do is focus on the next game and that's St Loman's. They (St Loman's) reached the final last year and haven't become bad players overnight, so it's going to be very tough on Saturday. Our main aim in our first year back at senior level was to ensure we avoided immediate relegation and we've more or less done that. But it would be brilliant to reach the quarter-finals and then see where we go from there," Lennon said. Tubberclair will be without the injured Fergal Wilson and Enda Magee, the latter of whom suffered a bad cruciate ligament injury in his team's most recent outing (a 0-14 to 0-10 win over Coralstown-Kinnegad). Thomas Doogan also remains sidelined through injury, but Tubberclair duo Ian Coffey and Geoffrey Farrell are in exceptional form at present, notching twelve of their team's 14 points in their last outing, and should be a big threat to St Loman's. Elsewhere this weekend, Maryland continue their quest to stay in touch in Division 1 with a meeting against Killucan at Cusack Park on Sunday (7.15pm). Maryland suffered a first defeat in this year's championship to Athlone recently, and the winner of Sunday's match will go a long way to qualifying for the knockout phase. In Division 2 of the SFC - from which champions Garrycastle have already qualified for the knockout phase - St Malachy's meet Tyrrellspass at Ballymore on Sunday (7pm), and The Downs play Mullingar Shamrocks at Cusack Park next Monday evening (6.30pm).