Kelly appointed Athlone player/manager

Stephen Kelly has been appointed the new player/manager of Athlone Town Football Club, and takes charge of his first game this Saturday night, when Town travel south to take on Cobh Ramblers.

Kelly, who is originally from Dublin, but now lives locally in Kenagh Co Longford, impressed the interviewing panel when applying to succeed Jimmy Greene earlier this year.

With Aaron Callaghan quitting after only two months in the job, Kelly was more than happy to take the position second time round, as he told athlonetownfc.com in his first interview as manager.

"Yeah, it's great. Obviously I went for the position during the close season, but Aaron was successful then. Myself and Dutchy [Padraig Dully] are here now though, and I think we've both been around the game long enough, and we've both won things, so hopefully we can impart some of our knowledge onto the lads,” said Kelly.

He continued: "There is a good squad there to base ourselves around. It's going to be a long hard season. At the minute it's just a matter of getting a bit of confidence into the team.

“The last two weeks have been good, obviously the Longford game excluded. But the games before that - the Finn Harps game we played well but were just unlucky near the end, and obviously last week we put in a good performance to beat Galway, so we have that to build on.

"Yes Aaron is gone, but we have enough continuity there with myself and Dutchy that hopefully the change won't affect the lads too much. Hopefully the quick response to getting myself in will pay dividends," he concluded.

Town have no injury worries ahead of the game in Cobh on Saturday night, with Alan Kelly having returned to training following a viral infection which hampered his return from knee surgery.

Kelly Factfile

Born: February 11th 1971

Previous Clubs: Kilkenny City, Longford Town, Dundalk FC, Finn Harps

Honours Won: League Medal with Dundalk 1994/95

Athlone Town Record:

2004 - Played 8 Scored 1

2003 - Played 17 Scored 3

2002/03 - Played 19 Scored 5