Heavy defeat for Athlone on rainy night in Glasgow

Soccer: Women's Europa Cup first qualifying round first leg

Glasgow City 3 Athlone Town 0

By Alison McConnell

On a night when Glasgow represented a monsoon with a biblical downpour, Athlone Town found their Europa Cup dreams almost totally washed away by Glasgow City at at Petershill Park tonight (Wednesday).

Goals from Amy Anderson, Linda Motlhalo and Lisa Forrest gave City a 3-0 lead to take into next Wednesday night's second leg in Athlone.

Athlone will look to individual errors and a lack of conviction in the final third as they created issues for what look like an unconvincing Glasgow City defence at times.

That the visitors were architects of their own downfall for the opening two goals will be tough to swallow on the back of what has been a turbulent few days for the club. Colin Fortune's sudden departure as Athlone manager last weekend meant interim boss John Sullivan took charge for this fixture.

Anderson's opener came after Athlone keeper Megan Plaschko had allowed Sofia Maatta’s ball across the box to slip out of her grasp, with Anderson having the easiest of jobs to tap into the net. It was 1-0 to the home side at half-time.

Shauna Brennan was caught out for the second goal with Maatta pinching the ball off her toe before then squaring for Motlhalo. The midfielder buried her effort firmly beyond the reach of Plaschko.

A third quickly followed for the Scottish side with Forrest getting her name on the scoresheet on the cusp of the hour mark.

Athlone stuck to their task and caused a few issues for the City defence, but the Irish champions were unable to capitalise on such moments, much to the relief of the Petershill side.