Athlone Town draw losing streak to a close

Aathlone Town 0 Bray Wanderers 0

New Athlone Town manager Keith Long succeeded in breaking Athlone's run of 10 successive league defeats against his former club last night, but he'll regret seeing two goals ruled out for offside and a missed penalty with seven minutes lto go.

Both sides had plenty of chances in an open first half that was played at a high tempo.

Twice Athlone had the ball in the Bray net, only to see their effort ruled out for offside in each case.

Declan Prendergast did look well offside when he slid in to guide James O’Brien’s mishit shot into the net but Seán Brennan was unlucky to see his free-kick ruled out, though it looked as if the rush of Athlone players at the far post failed to get a touch on the ball.

Bray came closest to scoring when Graham Kelly’s free-kick 25 yards out took a slight deflection and crashed against the foot of the post shortly before half time, while Paul Skinner did well to deny Dave Scully from close range midway through the half.

Goalmouth incidents were rarer after the interval but it looked as if Athlone might steal a victory when Robbie Moloney was sent off for pulling down Graham Rusk in the penalty area with seven minutes remaining.

However, Stephen McGuinness came to the rescue of his defender with a fine low save and Bray comfortably held on throughout the closing stages, despite their numerical disadvantage.

ATHLONE TOWN: Skinner; McMahon, Prendergast, D Brennan (Hughes 86), Clancy; A Byrne; Marks (S Byrne 71), Dillon, O'Brien, S Brennan (Sweeney 88); Rusk.

BRAY WANDERERS: McGuinness; Cooney, Webster, Mitchell, Maloney; Zambra; Scully, Cassidy, Kelly (Byrne 85), O'Neill (Hanlon 71); Akinade.

Referee: Kevin O'Regan .