Longford Town make a point in the final game of the season against Athlone

Athlone Town . . . 0   Longford Town . . . 0

An uneventful opening thirty minutes produced just three chances and they all went to Athlone. On eleven minutes, a good diagonal run from Aaron Connolly resulted in him passing the ball to Valeri Dolia on the left flank, he cut inside only to fire his shot over the Longford bar.

In the twenty-eighth minute, a surging run down the right from Jamar Campion-Hinds took him past Longford defender Kyle O’Connor and the Athlone winger played the ball back into the path of top-scorer Frantz Pierrot, but he blazed his shot over the bar.

Within a minute, the home side should have taken the lead when a superb cross-field ball from Connolly over the Longford defence put in Campion-hinds but his rising shot cleared the Town bar when he should have hit the target.

Playing their final game of the season, Stephen Henderson’s charges had to wait until the last minute to create their only opportunity of the first half. Adeyemo cleverly played a short pass to find Adam Wixted inside the Athlone box on the left and his effort almost sailed over Athlone keeper Enda Minogue into the net, but Minogue just about managed to claw the ball away to safety.

In the first minute of the second half, Longford keeper Jack Brady was called into action as he produced an excellent save to push a Campion-Hinds effort out for a corner that was easily dealt with by the Longford defence.

Against the run of play, the visitors should have hit the front on forty-nine minutes. Adeyemo raced down the left and whipped in a brilliant low cross that picked out Ross Fay but the Longford midfielder somehow shot wide from just seven yards out.

Athlone then came close to rattling the net twice in the space of five minutes. On sixty-nine minutes, substitute Dylan Gavin ran at the Longford defence and curled a twenty-five-yard shot beyond Longford keeper Brady only for the shot to whistle just past the post.

With seventy-four minutes on the clock, Athlone missed a glorious chance to score when Oisin Duffy’s right-wing cross found Gavin totally unmarked just ten yards out from goal but he headed just wide when he should have scored.

Longford should have won the match in stoppage time when top-scorer Cristian Magerusan missed an absolute sitter. Joshua Giurgi’s pin-point cross from the right found Magerusan on the edge of the six-yard box totally unmarked but he somehow screwed his shot high and wide.

ATHLONE TOWN (4-2-3-1): Minogue, Baker, Rodriguez, Van Geenan, Duffy, Connolly, McKenna, Campion-Hinds, Hickey, Dolia, Pierrot.

Subs:- Gavin for Dolia (31 mins); McGlone for Campion Hinds, Leal for Connolly (both 88 mins).

LONGFORD TOWN (4-2-3-1): Brady, Boudiaf, Temple, Hand, O’Connor, Serdeniuk, Hery, Campbell, Fay, Wixted, Ola Adeyemo.

Subs:- Giurgi for Campbell, Magerusan for Adeyemo, Doona for Wixted (all 66 mins); Armstrong for Fay (73 minutes).

Referee: Alan Patchell.