Five years ago this week, Athlone Town limped off the pitch at Greenogue after an 8-0 mauling by reigning champions Peamount United, making it four defeats out of four at the start of their debut season in the National League.
The midlands club has come a long way in the intervening period. Take their most recent game as a snapshot of that progress. Athlone Town beat Shelbourne 2-1 in the league last Saturday to go back to the top of the Premier Division, keeping them on course to retain the title they won last season.
Now, take their next game as a continuation of that snapshot. The team are in the Netherlands preparing for a Champions League second round meeting with Iceland’s Breiðablik (Wednesday, 12pm Irish time, live on LOITV).
As Sligo native Roisin Molloy puts it, “it’s been an amazing journey”. The turning point, says the 23-year-old winger, was Athlone winning the FAI Cup two years ago, a triumph that “got the winning mentality into the group”. She admits that few at the club would have foreseen such rapid progress.
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They cruised through the first qualifying phase of this season’s Champions League, beating Cardiff City 4-0, when Molloy scored twice. They followed that up by beating Croatia’s Agram 3-0. Not since Raheny United a decade ago had an Irish team reached the second qualifying round.
But now the Icelandic champions stand between Athlone Town and a place in the final of the mini tournament in Enschede in the Netherlands. The winners will play either hosts FC Twente or Serbia’s FK Crvena Zvezda, aka Red Star Belgrade, on Sunday. The victors in that game will progress to the third round of the interminable Champions League qualifiers. The prize for coming through that will be a place in the group phase.
Breiðablik should be formidable opponents. Five of their players featured in the most recent Icelandic squads, and with Iceland 10 places above Ireland in the world rankings, that’s a measure of their strength. The odds are firmly in Breiðablik’s favour.
“Obviously the quality of the teams at this stage increases – it’s going to be really, really high,” said Molloy. “But we have great belief in our squad; I think we have a lot of quality.
“We’ll put our best foot forward, we really want to put in good performances. This is massive for the club and women’s football in Ireland too. It’s important that we show on a European level how the women’s game has grown at home.”
