Athlone Town 0, Sligo Rovers 2

Sligo Rovers continued their excellent run of recent form last night when they travelled to Athlone Town and secured a 2-0 victory against the beleaguered midlanders, thanks to goals in each half from Danny Ledwith and Danny North.

The victory made it five wins in six games for Ian Baraclough’s men, all secured while keeping clean sheets.

With Gary Rogers in terrific form, Athlone never looked like making a breakthrough against the visitors, though Philip Gorman came close on two occasions in the first half.

Rovers looked particularly sharp down both wings as they played most of their football away from the centre of the park and it was an excellent John Russell delivery from the right wing that set up Danny Ledwith to head home the opener after 31 minutes.

Athlone had their chances in the first half and they also were unlucky not to be awarded a penalty when it looked as if Kalen Spillane pushed Philip Gorman in the back.

Sligo Rovers only started looking like a potent attacking threat again once they introduced Eric Odhiambo off the bench.

Kalen Spillane rattled the Athlone crossbar with a stunning 30-yard strike with 20 minutes to play and shortly afterwards the Bit'o'Red made sure of the points thanks to a close range effort from Danny North.

ATHLONE TOWN: Skinner; Quigley, Prendergast, A Byrne, S Byrne; Marks, Dillon, O'Brien (Hughes, halftime), Clancy (Sweeney, 62 mins); Rusk, Gorman (Brennan, 55 mins).
SLIGO ROVERS: Rogers; Conneely, Henderson, Spillane, Gaynor; Russell (Maguire, 82 mins), O'Conor, Cawley, Ledwith; Greene (Odhiambo, 69 mins), North.
Referee: Robert Rogers