By Gerard Mulreaney (@gerardmulreaney)
Athlone Town opened their season with an away defeat to many peoples favourites for the First Division title, Galway United 4-1 at Eamonn Deacy Park. While Galway were comfortable winners in the end, Aaron O’Callaghan’s side did show enough in the 90 minutes to suggest that they may not be the whipping boys many think.
The midlanders could even have taken the lead before debut boy Danny Furlong opened the scoring, as Martin Walsh was played through on goal only for Galway keeper Tadhg Ryan to come off his line to save well.
Athlone were very lively up front, with Walsh and Shane Stokes impressing. Unfortunately defensive errors came to haunt them over the 90 minutes, however that will surely be rectified on the training ground.
Changes at half-time, with both Etanda Nkololo and George Mukete coming on, made Athlone look even more dangerous. Mukete was very unfortunate not to score as he had 3-4 chances. Both wing-backs Aaron Brilly and Spaniard Felix Bape looked sharp throughout, and Bape capped a fine display when he scored a cracking goal near the finish as he let fly with his left-foot from all of 25 yards out.
The Spaniard, who came through the youth ranks at world-renowned clubs Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid, has been playing for Sheriff YC before impressing during Athlone’s recent trials. He played very well on the night, and I caught up with him to ask for his reaction to the game.
He said, “I felt that we started the game a little bit deep in the first half and we gave them some space to create chances, but we corrected that in the second half. We definitely improved our performance in the second half. We even had our chances to change the game.”
“The goals were from some small mistakes but we will learn from them. I am quite satisfied with the attitude of all of my team-mates and also I am sure that we will be fine because the coaches are working in the right direction. They fully prepare us for the games and I have no doubts that the results will come soon if we keep working like that.”
He is enjoying his time in Athlone, “I am enjoying being part of the team, because we have a really good team with plenty of hunger, and we also have very qualified and experienced coaches who are working with passion and determination.”
Something that was very notable in the Galway game was the fact that Bape is a long-throw specialist, as one in the second half caused Galway some problems. Bape said, “Yes I have a long throw that I hope is going to help the team to take advantage from.”
His goal was a superb effort, but with the result the way it went his night was disappointing, “It’s was a nice goal, but I could not be happy because it was not enough to get a result. I hope the next goal will help to get points for the team.”
I asked Felix how his team-mate Brian Cabraley was after he was stretchered off during the game with what looked like a nasty injury and he said, “Brian is getting better, he has to have some tests and we will see how his hamstring progress.”
Picture Credit: Athlone Town FC
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