Shelbourne manager Owen Heary delighted with the strength of their defending following the comfortable 4-1 win over Athlone Town. The Dublin club went level on points in the First Division with Longford Town after the victory, as Athlone Town remain
Shelbourne manager Owen Heary delighted with the strength of their defending following the comfortable 4-1 win over Athlone Town. The Dublin club went level on points in the First Division with Longford Town after the victory, as Athlone Town remain rooted to the bottom of the table, two points adrift of Wexford. “I thought it was a very open game. We’d a fair few chances; they had a fair few chances. We played too openly at times. Maybe the fact that we had so much of the ball fellows tend to switch off because you’re more or less attacking, attacking, attacking.” Athlone Town forced a dozen corners in the game but that didn’t unduly concern the Shels boss. “We defended them very well apart from the goal they scored which came from our corner!” Claudio Silva profited from a swift breakaway to peg Shels back to 3-1 before Derek Prendergast netted Shels’ fourth. “In the transition from to defence we didn’t tune in quick enough. As defenders, you have to make sure things are right just in case they do counter attack. We’d young lads playing tonight who probably switched off at times. But we played well, got on the ball. I’m quite pleased. It’s three points. We won the game.” Heary played down the impact of Nkololo’s tenth minute penalty miss, which would have given the visitors a foothold in the game after Dayle Rooney’s opener but praised the contribution of his skipper and goalkeeper. “It was a turning point in that they missed it. We had enough in our tank to go on and win the game. That would have made it 1-1. We wouldn’t have panicked; We’d have kept doing the right things. ‘Deano’ was excellent tonight, on his birthday!” Overall the Shels supremo was happy with the night’s work. “I’m a bit disappointed we didn’t keep a clean sheet. We scored four goals. We could have scored four more. We probably made the runs a bit too early. We should have stayed onside for a couple more. When we did get the chances, we took them well. We scored some good goals and we move up the table.”
