Sporting Fingal 2-0 Athlone Town.

Sporting Fingal got back to winning ways against Athlone Town following consecutive draws with Limerick and Mervue United.

The home side looked dangerous early on and came close to opening the scoring within the first ten minutes when Gareth Whelan headed just over from fellow defender Brian Gannon’s long ball.

Athlone then had a good chance of their own with 26 minutes played when Colm James’ misdirected header fell to the feet of Stephen Place who failed to capitalise and shot wide.

Noel McGee then forced Darren Quigley into a great save ten minutes before half-time as his shot from the edge of the box looked destined for the top corner.

The second half started frantically and Alan Kirby had a good chance during the early stages from the edge of the Athlone box, which was saved by John McGuinness.

The visitors then came agonisingly close to opening the game when Place skipped past the advancing Quigley and shot from an acute angle. John Frost’s attempted clearance came off the cross bar and fell to Kevin Dunne whose shot was cleared by the head of Whelan.

The deadlock was eventually broken on 71 minutes when Kirby beat McGuinness and put the ball across the face of the goal. Athlone midfielder Robert Benson was first to the drilled centre but, with Doyle pressurising, Benson was helpless to turn into his own net for Fingal’s opner.

Conan Byrne then doubled his side’s lead less than two minutes later after he latched onto a through ball from Gaynor, swept past McGuinness and coolly slotted the ball into the back of the net.

Athlone picked up the pace late on to try salvage something but the Fingal defence held out to ensure they got back to winning ways with a 2-0 win.

Sporting Fingal (4-3-3): Quigley; James, Gannon, Whelan, Frost; Kirby, McFaul, Bayly (Fitzgerald 85 mins); C. Byrne, Doyle (McArdle 82 mins), Gaynor.

Athlone Town (4-5-1): McGuinness; Hamm, McGauley, Hope, Cleary; Dunne, Benson, McGee (Stack 86 mins), Tyrell (Reilly 70 mins), Onwubiko (Coffey 80 mins); Place.

Referee: K. Callanan.

Attendance: 722.