Athlone manager refuses to dwell on injury crisis as Wexford challenge approaches
Kevin O'Neill
Despite a major injury crisis hitting the Athlone Town men's camp, manager Ian Ryan is refusing to dwell on the difficulties posed by losing up to eight players in recent weeks.
Instead, Ryan is zoning-in on the many positives taken from last Monday's midlands derby victory against Longford Town - ahead of this Friday's trip to Wexford FC in the SSE Airtricity League First Division (Ferrycarrig Park, 7,45pm).
The loss of the influential Aaron Connolly shortly before kick-off against Longford – through a groin injury – left Athlone short in the midfield department. Or so everyone thought. However, American debutant Callum Cleary came into the engine-room and ended the game with the Player of the Match award.
Connolly's injiury is expected to keep him out of action for another couple of weeks, while defender Oisin Hand has already been ruled out for the entire campaign with a serious knee injury. Veteran goalkeeper Brendan Clarke remains sidelined for another two to three weeks with a calf complaint, and midfielder Robbie Lyons faces roughly the same period out with a quad muscle injury.
Winger Derin Adewale is also expected to miss another week because of a hamstring problem while Thomas Considine, who has yet to make his debut having signed in pre-season, remains a few weeks away from playing after breaking a toe shortly before the campaign began.
“Ah, it's been tough alright with injuries,” said Ryan.
“But look, we never complain about it and it's just sport..these things happen. What injuries do is give opportunities for other players, and you only have to look at Callum Cleary's performance against Longford. He was outstanding and deserved it. He trains really well and is a great lad, so it shows that if you bide your time, work hard and keep going, things can come good pretty quickly,” he added.
Ryan thanked the large attendance who showed up for Athlone's local derby victory – a 2-0 win against Longford that ended a tough run of three defeats in a row.
The Town now occupy the last promotion play-off position in the table and are level on points with Friday's opponents, Wexford FC. The teams played out a 2-2 draw when previously meeting at Athlone Town Stadium.
Ryan said he was “really pleased” with Athlone's performance against Longford, but added that they will need to be on their game to get a positive result at Ferrycarrig Park.
The Athlone manager was also delighted to see both centre-forwards, Peter Grogan and Cillian Tollett, hitting the net in the Easter Monday win over Longford, adding that the former had been struggling lately with a knee problem that required “taking our time to get Peter right”.
In the Longford match, Athlone only named six substitutes. But Ryan insisted that having a lack of numbers at the moment should never be used as an excuse for his Athlone team.
“It's been a reasonable first nine games,” he said.
“Of course you always want to have more points but I think to be fifth, from where we were coming from, is a decent return. We have to try to hang on to our position in the chasing pack and maybe add to the squad when the transfer window reopens in July. I'm really happy with the way the players carry themselves and give their all for the club. Now, we just have to keep it going and hopefully start with a good result against a strong Wexford side,” he added.
After the trip to Wexford, Athlone will host Bray Wanderers at Athlone Town Stadium on Friday, April 17 (7.45pm).