Published: Wednesday, 10th February, 2010 5:00pm

Farrell joins Athlone Town to boost attacking options

EXPERIENCED striker Robbie Farrell has become the latest addition to Brendan Place's squad as Athlone Town continue their preparations for the upcoming League of Ireland season.

The 32-year-old former Longford Town and Dundalk striker has won promotion from the First Division on three occasions and linked up with Athlone for the beginning of pre-season training last month.

Farrell has featured in all three of Athlone's pre-season matches to date, scoring in the 1-1 draw with the Irish Colleges, and assistant manager Padraig Moran feels his acquisition could be crucial for the Town.

"We had a very young side last season with very little experience, but the signing of Robbie Farrell improves our options in a very important area of the field. Robbie adds a great deal of experience and know-how, along with the likes of Chris Bennion and Stephen Caffrey. Robbie didn't play too much football with Drogheda Utd last season because of injury problems, but he's been training well and is someone who still wants to listen and learn," said Moran. "Robbie still has work to do on his fitness levels but he'll get there, and we're now beginning to strengthen up through the spine of the team, and that was something we needed to do after last season," Moran added.

Athlone, who drew 0-0 with Premier Division Dundalk at Oriel Park last Sunday, and lost narrowly to Bohemians last Thursday, are also currently looking at several possible new signings in training.

Former Shelbourne players Mark O'Brien (midfield) and Alan Keely (centre-half) are players more than capable of strengthening Athlone's side for the coming season. And manager Brendan Place - attending his Pro-Licence coaching course this week - is presently running the rule over those players. Moran said: "I'd love to see those players sign for Athlone but nothing has been done yet. I think a lot of players are keeping their options open at the moment and possibly looking to get something closer to home in Dublin.

Our budget is very low as well, so we'll have to wait and see what Brendan decides in the coming weeks, but I'm pretty confident we'll see one or two more new signings before the start of the season in early March." Athlone have also sealed the loan signing of goalkeeper Michael Schlingermann from Sligo Rovers and he'll be expected to push Chris Bennion hard for a starting berth.

Athlone play Newbridge Town away tomorrow evening (Thursday) and then entertain Sligo Rovers on Saturday, a game which looks set to take place in Athlone IT at 3pm. The Town will then complete their seven-match pre-season programme with games against Greystones and Drogheda Utd next week.

One injury concern for Athlone at the moment is that of young star midfielder Robbie Benson, whose currently nursing a hamstring injury, but he's expected to return to training in the next week or so, and possibly feature in the final pre-season friendly against Drogheda Utd.

Athlone Town AGM

Meanwhile, Athlone Town FC held its Annual General Meeting in the Shamrock Lodge Hotel on Monday evening, with very little changes made to the club committee.

However, John Croughan, seen very much as a driving force behind the successful Patrons' Scheme project, has been forced to resign his position on the main club committee and the Patrons' Scheme committee due to health difficulties. Gerry McManus takes over the role as Patrons' Scheme chairperson.

Mattie Lough and the late John Gately, the latter of whom passed away in July, are now absent from the committee. Nobody in the 50-strong attendance put themselves forward to fill the three vacant committee positions, but the club is confident of replacing them in the near future.

The nine-man committee - who will be assigned specific roles in the next week - consists of Tony Knight, Chris Enright, Damien Milton, John Comber, Nicky Moran, Tadhg Carey, Padjo Greene, Ger Tiernan and John 'Cha' Nicholson. They will be joined on the committee by a supporters' club representative, a club Lotto representative and a Patrons' Scheme representative. The club said its Patrons' Scheme has been a great success to date, with almost €140,000 paid off debts at the start of last season in the region of €350,000.

Committee member Chris Enright said players and management were all paid on time throughout the course of last season and that 278 patrons' currently exist on the scheme. It was also confirmed at the meeting that Gateway will continue as the club's main sponsor for the coming season.