Published: Wednesday, 28th April, 2010 5:00pm

Athlone end goal drought in easy win over local rivals

Athlone Town 2 Longford Town 0

Athlone Town's recent scoring drought ended as they won the first Midlands' league derby of the season on Saturday.

After going five games, including a League Cup loss to UCD, without finding the net, Athlone finally struck gold against near-neighbours Longford, who looked ragged and rudderless throughout a contest Athlone could have won by more.

Ironically, Athlone's last goal before Robbie Farrell broke the deadlock last Saturday, was Stephen Place's winner against Longford in the opening round of the League Cup in mid-March.

Austin Skelly missed an early penalty for Athlone, but that was soon forgotten as first-half strikes from Farrell - his first for the club - and winger Richie O'Hanlon, sealed three points, and maintained Athlone's unbeaten home record.

Unfortunately, the only black spot on an otherwise productive night for Athlone was defender Des Hope's second red card of the season.

Hope was unfortunate to receive a straight red card in the second half for an off-the-ball incident involving Longford substitute Peter Hynes, who certainly made the very most of a harmless-looking barge from Hope.

Longford finished the game with just nine men when central defensive pairing Chris Deans and Thomas Hyland were red carded.

With defender Brian McCarthy fighting off the effects of a knee injury picked up in the previous week's scoreless draw against Finn Harps, Athlone were able to field their first-choice back-five for the eighth straight league game, with goalkeeper Chris Bennion again proving an inspiration behind his defence.

Gareth Kenna was unavailable through a combination of injury and suspension, so Robbie Benson continued in midfield alongside the wily Stephen Caffrey, whose calming influence and experience is of great benefit to this Athlone team.

Even though Athlone had endured a frustrating time in front of goal recently, Brendan Place avoided the temptation of bringing Noel McGee into the fray from the start, instead persevering with Robbie Farrell and Austin Skelly up front.

And Farrell justified Place's faith with the opening goal on 34 minutes, latching onto Kevin Williamson's through pass before slotting past Stephen Conlon with his left foot. It looked momentarily like Farrell, under pressure from Kevin Cronin, had lost control of the ball, but he calmly regained his composure, and neatly found the bottom corner of the net, thus ending his own personal goal drought, too.

The home side had spurned an early opportunity to take the lead when, after just two minutes, Skelly was fouled in the penalty area but saw his resulting spot kick well saved by Stephen Conlon.

The rebound fell kindly to O'Hanlon but his effort struck the post and Longford cleared the ball to safety.

At that point, some Athlone supporters wondered if their team would ever find the net again, but they were slicing through Longford's awful defence at will.

On eight minutes, O'Hanlon's cross from the right picked out fellow winger Williamson, but he took too long controlling the ball and his shot was blocked away by Victor Ekanem, who himself was having a night to forget at right-back for Longford.

In the 15th minute, Bennion had to be alert to gather a through ball with Longford striker Derek Glynn threatening. Former Athlone player Fiachra McArdle then shot just wide as Longford began to settle and enjoy a small bit of possession.

However, Athlone soon regained full control, and were afforded so much time and space when in possession, with Caffrey and Benson exerting plenty of influence from midfield.

Benson played a part in Athlone's second goal on 34 minutes, when his right-sided corner caused many problems for the Longford rearguard. The ball eventually dropped kindly to O'Hanlon, who sent a well-controlled half-volley into the back of the Longford net.

Soon after, Glynn went really close for Longford, his well-struck half-volley from the edge of the box fizzing past Bennion's right-hand post, before Longford substituted right-back Ekanem, with striker Peter Hynes coming on.

The more physical Hynes added more of a target and threat to the Longford forward line, and soon set up McArdle for his team's best chance of the first half.

McArdle skipped past the challenge of Eoghan O'Shea on the edge of the Athlone penalty area, and looked certain to score, but Bennion produced a fine save, using his left foot, to divert McArdle's shot wide for a corner.

The signing of captain Bennion has proved a major coup for Brendan Place and his form remains one of the main reasons Athlone have conceded a miserly two goals in the opening eight matches of the season.

Bennion also showed a safe pair of hands to hold John Lestor's strike as Longford slightly upped their performance before half-time. Ryan McEvoy also tried his luck from distance but his effort flew over the bar.

Three minutes into the second half, Benson delivered a fine free kick into the Longford box but McCarthy's header was off-target.

On 53 minutes, Hynes did well to manufacture a chance off Cathal Brady's cross but, again, Bennion held his effort in confident fashion.

Athlone's night took a turn for the worse on 66 minutes when Hope was sent off for felling Hynes off-the-ball, an incident referee Jim McKell missed, but was alerted to by his linesman, before issuing a straight red card - a harsh fate for Hope considering Hynes' unsporting theatrics.

Longford now had a major chance and although they started to attack a bit more, never seemed to carry the necessary conviction to get back in the game.

Freeman had the ball in the net on 70 minutes but was ruled offside, while Brendan Place replaced Farrell with young midfielder Stephen Relihan, Athlone's second substitution after the half-time introduction of McGee for Skelly.

Both Hynes and Deans headed fractionally over from good positions, but Longford were also soon playing with ten men, when Deans, already on a yellow card, took down Williamson and was shown a second booking.

Athlone produced the game's most free-flowing move on 78 minutes. Williamson worked the ball nicely to O'Hanlon and his pinpoint right-wing cross set up McGee, but his diving header from close range went the wrong side of the post.

Athlone had a major let-off on 82 minutes when Freeman inadvertently blocked a goalbound header by Hyland, who was then sent off in the 83rd minute for cynically hacking down McGee when through on goal. Athlone now owned possession and were cruising towards a solid, if unspectacular, local derby win.

Another superb cross from O'Hanlon picked out Benson, marauding in from midfield, but his looping header was marginally wide. O'Hanlon then showed good skill to waltz past a couple of tackles in stoppage time, but his tame effort was easily saved by Conlon. However, Athlone had done more than enough to seal three points and move to sixth place in the league table.

Athlone TOWN: Chris Bennion; Mark Nolan, Eoghan O'Shea, Des Hope, Brian McCarthy, Stephen Caffrey, Richie O'Hanlon, Robbie Benson, Robbie Farrell, Austin Skelly, Kevin Williamson. Subs: Noel McGee for Skelly (45 mins), Stephen Relihan for Farrell (70), Stephen Place for Benson (86).

Longford TOWN: Stephen Conlon; Victor Ekanem, Kevin Cronin, Chris Deans, Thomas Hyland, John Lestor, Cathal Brady, Mark Salmon, Fiachra McArdle, Derek Glynn, Ryan McEvoy. Subs: Peter Hynes for Ekanem (40 mins), Dave Freeman for Glynn (45), Gary Cronin for Brady (79).

Referee: Jim McKell.