REPORT: Wexford 7-0 Athlone Town

Shane Barnes hit a 13-minute second-half hat-trick for Wexford FC as they put Athlone Town to the sword in the basement battle in Ferrycarrig Park.

Aaron Dobbs and substitute Dean George both added doubles as the Slaneysiders simply tore the hapless visitors to shreds. The hosts held a 1-0 advantage at the break thanks to a Dobbs strike and they really pressed home their superiority after the interval hitting another six goals without reply.

Dobbs fired the hosts in front into 39th minute, bursting through after Liam McCartan's ball forward ricocheted off a defender into his path, and finishing with aplomb past Michael Fogarty. Shane Barnes doubled Wexford's advantage eight minutes after the break with his first goal for the club.

Thomas Croke played a long ball forward to Dobbs and the striker squared for Barnes, who fired a shot to the corner of the net. His second goal wasn't long about coming as seven minutes later the ball fell to him just inside the area and he rifled a superb strike past Fogarty.

In the 67th minute he was celebrating a hat-trick when he took a Mark Slater pass in his stride and arrowed a powerful shot out of the reach of the goalkeeper. The netminder was picking the ball out of the net again ten minutes later, with substitute Dean George netting his first for the club, when he hit a shot from the edge of the area and Fogarty let the effort slip through his fingers.

Two minutes later it was six when Dobbs was taken down in the area, and he powered the resulting spot-kick to the left-hand corner of the net. They then made it three goals in four minutes when George grabbed his second, brilliantly controlling a Liam McCartan pass before confidently arrowing a drive past Fogarty.

It was a morale-boosting win and performance by Damian Locke's men, but a night to forget for Athlone.