Athlone Town ensured their visit to Ferrycarrig Park on Friday night was a fruitful one as they carved out a 2-1 win to continue their perfect start to the campaign. The midlanders eked out a 1-0 victory over Waterford in their opening fixture and t
Athlone Town ensured their visit to Ferrycarrig Park on Friday night was a fruitful one as they carved out a 2-1 win to continue their perfect start to the campaign.
The midlanders eked out a 1-0 victory over Waterford in their opening fixture and they enjoyed success against opponents from the south east again with first-half goals from Jose Viegas and Colm Coss sealing the deal.
A sublime finish from Ricky Fox just after the hour mark brought Wexford back into the game but Athlone repelled anything the Slaneysiders could throw at them thereafter.
Town created the first chance of note in the 16th minute, with Jason Lyons turning a Niall Scullion cross goalwards, but Wexford goalkeeper Graham Doyle was equal to it.
Scullion was having plenty of joy down the right flank although his radar was a little awry in the 20th minute as his effort on goal flew well off target.
An ambitious, dipping, long-range effort from Athlone's Dragos Sfrijan flew over the crossbar on 26 minutes and seconds later Wexford created an opening at the other end but Thomas Croke's shot was blocked.
Athlone made the breakthrough on 33 minutes, when Jose Viegas ran on to a perfectly-weighted through ball from Kirils Grigorovs and applied a classy finish.
Ten minutes later and Athlone had doubled their advantage. Niall Scullion gathered possession on the right wing and sent in an inviting cross and Colm Coss headed the ball to the net with aplomb.
Wexford needed something special to get back into the game and the Fox in the box did just that on 61 minutes.
Seán Hurley teed up inrushing right-back Ricky Fox just inside the area and he arrowed a powerful shot to the corner of the net.
Wexford's tails were up but Athlone stood up well to the pressure and came close to killing off the contest with breakaway efforts late on.
With Wexford piling players forward Jose Viegas, Jason Lyons, Val Feeney and substitute and Ryan Gaffney all had sights of goal but the two they got proved sufficient as they headed up the N11 with three more points in the bag.
