League Preview: Athlone Town -v- Drogheda United

In-form Drogheda United will be looking to make it three wins in a row when they make the trip to face a struggling Athlone Town side on Friday evening.

ATHLONE TOWN

Friday’s hosts come into the game occupying sixth place in the First Division table, having collected just seven points from their opening nine fixtures.

Athlone will have one eye on those teams behind them, with Waterford United level on points with the Westmeath side and bottom-placed Cabinteely trailing by just two points.

It took Athlone until their eighth game of the season to claim their first win, as they overcame Cabinteely 3-1 at home, before making the trip to Tolka Park in their last outing, where they were narrowly defeated by Shelbourne.

DROGHEDA UNITED

The Boynesiders will be looking to claim their third successive win as they travel to Westmeath, having claimed back-to-back victories against Waterford and Cobh Ramblers respectively. Prior to these wins, Drogs played out a 2-2 draw with UCD.

With Limerick boasting a 12-point cushion at the summit of the First Division table, Drogheda will be keen to preserve their second-place position and expand their one-point lead over Cobh in third.

“Winning can become a habit and the goal tomorrow night will be to make it three on the bounce,” Pete Mahon told DroghedaUnited.ie. “It’s going to be a different challenge to last week’s games as Athlone are battling down at the wrong end of the table and they’ll be looking to frustrate us from the off.

“Momentum is key in football and we feel we finally have some after our last couple of results and hopefully we can continue it tomorrow night.”

Referee: Marc Lynch

MATCH STATS

In their earlier meeting this season, an injury time Marco Chindea strike ensured the spoils were shared in United Park, with the game ending 2-2.

Since 1995, the two have met on 20 occasions in the league, with the results being quite evenly distributed; Athlone have claimed all three points on six occasions, with Drogheda winning seven and seven ending all square.

If history is anything to go by, goals are to be expected on Friday night with the aforementioned 20 games seeing a total of 59 goals scored, averaging 2.95 goals per game.

BETTING

Athlone 5/2; Draw 13/5; Drogheda 10/11.

PREDICTION

Athlone Town 1-3 Drogheda United.

Athlone Town

Injured: None.

Doubtful: None.

Suspended: None.

Drogheda United

Injured: Colm Deasy (Broken metatarsal), Marc Griffin and Eoin Kirwan.

Doubtful: None.

Suspended: None.