League Preview: Athlone Town -v- Waterford FC

ATHLONE TOWN

Athlone take on Waterford United hoping to give themselves a bit of a boost up heading into the mid-season break. It has been a tough opening half of the season with match fixing investigations hanging over the club, new secret owners, dropping crowd numbers and of course the removal of two, three, actually maybe it was only one manager.

Roddy Collins is the new man in charge at Athlone Town Stadium and will be hoping to recapture some of the glory he found when he got the Midlanders promoted a number of years ago.

In his first two official games in charge though, Athlone have lost 2-0 in both as Cabinteely and UCD dispatched of their opponents with relative ease.

Athlone have no suspensions to worry about but they have once again not provided any team news so we won’t take any bets on who is injured.

WATERFORD FC

Waterford are sitting top of the First Division table at the moment and will be confident of picking up another three points on their quest for promotion into the top flight.

Last time out Waterford played out a scoreless draw with Cobh Ramblers but midfielder Gary Comerford felt that the win was there for the taking.

“I thought that we did enough in Cobh last week to come away with all three points but I suppose you would have taken a point down there before the game. It's a tough place to go but we definitely had enough chances to win the match.

“It was important that we didn't lose to keep the unbeaten run going somewhat. When you take in the amount of injuries that we've had and the fact that we probably haven't had a settled team, I think that we're doing really to be top of the league.

“We know that nothing will be easy when we travel to take on Athlone on Friday night as they are probably one of the toughest teams that we've played. It still pains us somewhat that we lost to them in the first half. It was a night when nothing went right for us.

“When we played them in the RSC it was a very difficult game where we seemed to be in control until they scored. We gave away a penalty that Matthew saved so we know that nothing will be easy on Friday night.

“It would be good to go into the mid-season break on the back of a win and to be still top of the table. I think that people have yet to see the best of this squad of players and hopefully that will come in time.”

In team news the Blues will be without the services of Dean O’Halloran, Sander Puri and Ian McLoughlin while captain David Mulcahy has also been ruled out with injury. Finally, Patrick McClean is rated as doubtful for the clash after sustaining a shoulder injury last weekend in Cobh.

Referee: David Keeler

MATCH FACTS

Waterford lost 2-1 last time they took on Athlone away from home. A game which took place on the opening day of the season.

Matthew Conor saved a penalty in the second round of games as the Blues held on to win 2-1.

24 goals is the number in the difference between the amount of goals Waterford have conceded compared to Athlone this season. Athlone’s tally of 30 is the highest in the division.

BETTING

Athlone Town 7/1; Draw 7/2; Waterford 4/11

PREDICTION

Athlone Town 0 – 2 Waterford United

Athlone Town

Injured: Unknown

Doubtful: Unknown

Suspended: None

Waterford United

Injured: Dean O’Halloran, Sander Puri, Ian McLoughlin

Doubtful: Patrick McClean

Suspended: None