Early goals decisive as sharper Athlone overcome St. Lomans

Westmeath SFC: Athlone 3-3, St. Loman's 0-9 -- Fourteen-man Athlone hung on for a fine victory in the first round of the 2010 championship against a profligate St. Loman's side at Cusack Park last Saturday evening.Early goals paved the way to victory for Athlone who were forced to play the final 17 minutes without Gary Quinn after the number three was shown a straight red card by referee Sean Sheridan for a striking offence in the 43rd minute. Two Michael Greene goals inside the opening ten minutes gave Athlone a dream start and when John Connellan added a third three minutes before half-time, Athlone looked poised to kick on for victory.But the second period of play yielded just two points for Malachy Gately's side and by the end they were just about holding on, while Loman's, themselves only kicking a further three points, squandered the majority of their possession.The result sees Athlone exact a small bit of revenge for last year's championship meeting between the two sides when victory for Loman's in the final game of the group effectively ended Athlone's championship hopes.Athlone began at a fast pace but after kicking an initial wide it was their opponents who took the lead on five minutes - Kieran Lynam kicking the first of his six frees after Conor Lynam was dragged down by Paul Mullen.Lynam tapped over a second a minute later before Athlone struck for their first goal on eight minutes. A low ball was sent to John Connellan who initially fumbled it before showing great ingenuity to win the ball back off his marker. Now running directly at goal, Connellan could have chosen to fist the ball over the bar. Instead, he spotted Michael Greene on the edge of the small square. Greene collected the hand-pass from Connellan before side-stepping a Loman's challenge and slamming the ball to the net.Barely a minute later, Greene had raised the green flag again. John Egan and Joe Fallon combined to set up Greene, who did superbly to win the ball . He still had a lot of work to do but, from a difficult angle, he somehow managed to find the near top-corner of the net with the outside of his right boot to complete a highly satisfactory opening ten minutes for Athlone.John Heslin fired the ball over the bar, having collected a pass from Kieran Lynam. A goal may have been on Heslin's mind, however.A minute later Joe Fallon laid off a clever pass to the on-rushing Alan Gaughan who, with the use of his right boot, curled over Athlone's first point of the game.On 22 minutes, Athlone should have had their third goal of the game when John Egan raced clear With all the time in the world to pick his spot, Egan fired wide.Loman's looked to take advantage and did so on 25 minutes with another Kieran Lynam free after Paul Sharry had been fouled by Fergal Murray.But a minute later, Athlone did find the net for a third time. Again Alan Gaughan was involved, this time picking out Connellan who did well to win the ball ahead of his man. He then side-stepped the challenge of his marker and bravely went for goal and found the net via the hand of 'keeper Stephen Gallagher.Loman's replied with two further frees from Lynam but, at half-time, Athlone held a deserved four-point lead.That lead was stretched to five within 56 seconds of the restart - Joe Fallon curling over his first of the day from a placed ball. But in a low-scoring half, that was to be Athlone's last point until the 58th minute.Kieran Lynam, with his first and only point from play, pulled the deficit back to four on 34 minutes with a fine curling effort after neatly side-stepping two Athlone challenges. And the gap was back down to three on 40 minutes when Ciaran Kilmurray fired over after a quick free from John Heslin.A lull in play ensued thereafter but after Quinn was shown the line, Athlone faced a battle to hold on to their lead. The Loman's pressure increased as did their amount of possession but they could do little with it, the Mullingar side kicking four wides before Joe Fallon kicked the insurance score - his second free on 58 minutes.Lynam replied for Loman's with his sixth free of the day but it wasn't to be enough as Malachy Gately's first championship match in charge ended in a well-earned victory.Scorers Athlone: Michael Greene (2-0), John Connellan (1-0), Joe Fallon (0-2, two frees), Alan Gaughan (0-1). St. Loman's: Kieran Lynam (0-7, 6f), John Heslin (0-1), Ciaran Kilmurray (0-1).Athlone: Darren Costello, Paul Mullen, Gary Quinn, Fergal Murray, Noel Mulligan, Damien Kelly, Adam Ward, Alan Gaughan, Paul Bannon, John Egan, Tom Stuart Trainor, John Stapleton, Joe Fallon, Michael Greene, John Connellan. SUBS: Alan Kelly for J. Stapleton (18'), Kevin Macken for P. Mullin (42'), James Tobin for M. Greene (50'), Aiden St. John for P. Bannon (60').St. Lomans: Stephen Gallagher, Sean Murphy, James Davitt, David Rushe, Senan Russell, Gary Glennon, Emmett Cahill, John Heslin, Ciaran Kilmurray, Paul Sharry, Jonathan Plunkett, Conrad Reilly, Conor Cochrane, Kieran Lynam, Conor Lynam. SUBS: Barry Leonard for S. Russell (29'), Declan Lambden for C. Cochrane (37'), Tommy Lambden for J. Plunkett (47').Referee: Sean Sheridan.