First-Half goals by Stephen Doherty and Success Edogun (main pic), his third in three games, set Finn Harps up for another victory as they remain unbeaten.
Finn Harps 2
Athlone Town 0
By Charlie Collins at Finn Park
The result leaves Darren Murphy’s charges in joint second place with Cork City as Treaty United retain top spot.
The visitors arrived at Finn Park level on four points with Harps in joint second spot, but just ahead of them on goal difference.
After an opening day 3-0 victory over Wexford Youths, the midlanders let a 1-3 lead over Cobh Ramblers slip by conceding two late goals to share the points in a 3-3 draw. So scoring goals was not an issue for them and Harps knew they would have to be on their toes in defence to curtail them.
The Finnsiders had shown resilience in both their comeback victory in Longford and a draw with Cork City last week and a victory here would secure an excellent start to the season. Both teams were unchanged from last week with Harps still minus a number of likely starters. The first fifteen minutes were uneventful with neither goalkeeper troubled but as we moved into the next quarter Harps hit the front. Max Hutchison won possession and sent Success Edogun away down the right, he drilled a super ball across the six yard line and Stephen Doherty arrived to hammer the ball past Enda Minogue to put Harps in the lead.
In the 25th minute Harps Captain Tony McNamee worked a short throw -in with Jamie Watson but then pulled his shot wide. Athlone had another let-off three minutes later when Edogun’s cross was deflected by a defender past the keeper and hit the inside of the post before being scrambled clear.
The visitors were proving dangerous from set pieces and long throw-ins, but unable to trouble Tim Hiemer from open play as Harps hard work off the ball made life difficult for them to create any clear cut chances.
And Harps made them pay again just before half-time, Patrick Ferry was pulled down as he raced towards the penalty area. Tony McNamee flighted the resulting free-kick towards the near post, Ferry made contact with the ball which then fell into the path of Success Edogun and, for the third match in a row, he hammered low into the net.
As a result, Finn Harps went in 2-0 up at half-time.
The early stages of the second -half followed a similar pattern to the first with neither team creating much in terms of clear-cut chances. Athlone Town made three early changes and had most of the possession, but Harps remained resilient in defence. In the 66th minute the visitors should have pulled a goal back when Amardo Akeem Oakley found substitute Dylan Gavin free on the six yard but he headed over when scoring looked the easy option. Harps gave a debut to on loan defender Luke O’Brien in the 70th minute as the pressure for a goal increased on the visitors. And that situation almost became worse when Tony McNamee’s excellent corner was headed powerfully over the bar by Matthew Makinson with keeper Enda Minogue struggling to get to what was probably Harps only attempt on goal in a poor second half.
It didn’t matter as Harps continued to defend brilliantly and those two first-half goals made it two wins and a draw in their opening three games and seven points from a possible nine.
Early days, but a good start for Manager Darren Murphy and his squad.
Finn Harps: Tim-Oliver Heimer; Jamie Watson, Matthew Makinson, Noe Baba, Shane McMonagle; Max Hutchison, Stephen Doherty ( Luke O Brien 70mins), Tony McNamee, David Cawley; Patrick Ferry ( Mark Mbuli 85mins), Success Edogun.
Athlone Town: Enda Minogue; German Fuentes Rodriguez, Noah van Geenen ( Gideon Tetteh 60mins), Dylan Hand, Jarlath Jones ( Oisin Duffy 55mins), Armado Akeem Oakley, Carl Mujaguzi, Daniel McKenna (?Ruben Ferreira (85mins), Jamal Ibrahim ( Dylan Gavin (55 mins), Aaron Connolly ( Shane Forbes 85mins), Dean Ebbe.
Referee ; Daniel Murphy .
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