Shelbourne kept on the heels of the teams above them with a 2-1 victory over a resilient Athlone Town at Tolka Park on Friday night. The home side looked disjointed in the first half, seemingly missing the influence of Karl Moore who has been so im
Shelbourne defeated Athlone Town 2-1 to secure all three points and pile more misery on their Midland rivals.
Shels dominated the first half but were unable to find a way past Igor Labuts in the Athlone goal. The closest they came was when Aaron Ashe found himself free in the box and directed his header goalwards.
His attempt was straight at Labuts but the big Latvian dropped the ball at the feet of Adam Evans. He managed to recover, however, and pounced on the ball before Evans could react. They eventually took the lead after 58 minutes thanks to top scorer Derek Prendergast.
The centre back got on the end of a David O'Leary free kick to power a header past Labuts. It was 2-0 eight minutes later when Ashe raced onto a pass from Jack Tuite and coolly slotted the ball past Labuts.
Their was some confusion between the referee and linesman about whether Ashe was offside but he clearly wasn't and the goal was given. Jason Lyons pulled one back for Athlone with 11 minutes remaining to set up a nervy finish but Shels held on for a vital three points.
