Athlone Town's failure to field a team 'totally unacceptable'

The SSE Airtricity League First Division match between Athlone Town FC and Waterford United will not go ahead after the League office was informed this afternoon by Athlone Town FC that they did not have enough players to fulfil the fixture.

SSE Airtricity League director Fran Gavin has strongly condemned Athlone Town FC over their failure to field a team.

"We take this matter extremely seriously and will be charging Athlone for failing to fulfil the fixture and for bringing the game into disrepute," said Gavin.

"This is totally unacceptable. To be notified on the afternoon of an SSE Airtricity League fixture that a club cannot field a team is simply not good enough.

"We will be meeting with Athlone Town over the weekend to discuss this serious matter."