Athlone take narrow advantage into second leg against Wexford

NARROW LEAD: Dean Ebbe of Athlone Town, left, celebrates with team-mates Leonardo Gaxha, centre, and Daniel McKenna. Picture: Tyler Miller/Sportsfile

SSE Airtricity First Division Playoff semi-final first leg: Athlone Town 1 (Dean Ebbe 52 pen) Wexford 0

Athlone Town will take a narrow advantage to Wexford for the second leg of this promotion playoff tie next Monday afternoon after Dean Ebbe’s penalty separated the two teams at the end of a dour 90 minutes in the midlands tonight.

It was Gideon Tetteh’s clever interception and sharp footwork that forced Lewis Temple into his awkward body check of the 19-year-old winger after 52 minutes, and the Division’s top scorer duly sent the keeper the wrong way to make the spot kick look easy.

The creation of good attacking moves was anything but easy for the two sides outside of that as it was defenders such as German Fuentes Rodriguez and Oisín Duffy on the Athlone side, as well as Wexford’s holding midfielder Ethan Boyle, who were the leading lights on the field.

Initially Noah Van Geenen and Ebbe connected well and looked like they might cause problems for the visitors, but Wexford started to take control of more possession from the 15 minute mark, with the pace and power of Thomas Oluwa causing Athlone some problems, even if a speculative 25-yard shot from Aaron Dobbs was the only effort that forced Enda Minogue into action.

Once Tetteh’s run and Ebbe’s spot kick broke the deadlock early in the second half, a little bit more space opened up through the middle. Leonardo Gaxha and Van Geenen had their moments while Oluwa, Ethan Boyle and Divin Isamala ran hard and direct at the Athlone defence, but all to no avail as despite the accumulation of a total of nine corners across the 90 minutes, Wexford were reduced to meek shots from distance that never looked like getting them back on level terms.

ATHLONE TOWN: E Minogue; O Duffy, GF Rodriguez, D Hand, B Torre; D McKenna; K Robinson (J Campion-Hinds 82), L Gaxha, N Van Geenen, G Tetteh; D Ebbe.

WEXFORD FC: C Walsh; D Isamala, L Temple, S McHale, J Crawford; L Lovic (M Hanratty 60), E Boyle; K Corbally, D Levingston (C Crowley 72), T Oluwa; A Dobbs (C Curtis 79).

Referee: Oliver Moran.