Treaty United 1 – 2 Athlone Town
Treaty United played host to Athlone Town in a fixture where both sides came into the game desperately needing a win. Treaty faced something of an injury crisis where they were without the likes of Fionn Doherty, Enda Curran and Ben O’Riordan through various injuries.
The hosts were seconds away from the point, but Dean Ebbe’s last-gasp goal won it for ‘De Town’ at the death. The result sees Athlone move up to fourth, strengthening their playoff hopes, while Treaty will be confined to no post-season action.
An early injury to Robbie Lynch, who went down as the game entered its third minute, was a far from ideal start for Treaty.
They had the game’s first shot in the eighth minute, a long throw from Lynch’s replacement Christopher Horgan was flicked on by Richkov Boevi but Lee Devitt’s volley was blocked amongst a crowd of Athlone defenders.
There was a clear lack of flow in the early stages as Athlone tried to knock the ball around, but struggled to create for themselves as Treaty were more than happy to chase. Dylan Hand scared the hosts as the Athlone centre-half met Gaxha’s delivery from a corner, but headed wide of the right post – the visitors’ first chance just before the 15-minute mark.
Just past that quarter-hour stage, Lee Lynch struck a long-range daisy cutter when Yoyo Mahdy laid it off, but it was straight at Athlone netminder Enda Minogue. In the 21st minute, Noah Van Geenen latched on to a loose ball just outside the home side’s area, volleying past the left post of Corey Chamber’s goal. Athlone did seem to change style midway through the half, going slightly more direct and over the top of the Treaty defence, but to little success to start.
With half an hour played, a very similar Horgan throw-in from the right was again flicked on by Boevi. After a couple of touches, a Devitt overhead kick rolled wide. Entering the first half’s last 10 minutes, the away side did ramp up the pressure.
Gideon Tetteh started to have a bit more influence on proceedings and sent a shot high and over after cutting in from the left. Lee Devitt replied with a long range-strike, Mahdy teeing him up after Colin Conroy’s pass, but the left-footed curler also sailed over.
Treaty put an end to the Athlone pressure with a fantastic Oisin O’Reilly goal, the left-back ran into space and latched on to a cleared ball by the visitor’s defence. Driving towards the box at an angle, he struck the ball with his left and it was driven past Minogue into the bottom-right corner, giving the home side a 1-0 lead in the 39th minute.
Not much of note, besides a tame Oisin Duffy miss for Athlone, materialised for either side before the half ended and Treaty took their one-goal lead into the second half.
It was an absolute horror restart for the hosts, as Treaty United’s keeper Corey Chambers travelled outside of his box to claim an Athlone ball forward. He was dismissed as referee Lucas Keating branded the red card in minute 49, seeing young backup goalkeeper Michael Dike replace Trpimir Vrljicak. Brian Torre’s resulting free kick from just right of the goal was too central and made for a comfortable introduction for Dike.
It would be back-to-the-wall stuff for Treaty from this point on.
Gideon Tetteh again fashioned an angle from the left side, but his shot was headed away by Evan O’Connor at centre-back. Another poor long-distance effort, this time from Shane Forbes, followed from the edge of the area but trickled wayward of the goal.
With the intent from the Westmeath club moving up a gear, calls for a penalty for Athlone were waved away. Boevi took a touch and cleared the ball while Dean Ebbe came across him, fortunately for the Markets Field crowd the referee was not convinced.
Athlone did drive forward with more adventure, but little came of it in the way of the end product. Many crosses and long balls were headed away by the resilient partnership of O’Connor and Boevi. Leo Gaxha’s right-wing delivery did see Ebbe meet the ball first just as the game entered its final 20 minutes, but it was a weak header that Dike collected.
Athlone did find their equaliser after a poor bit of set-piece defending. An in-swinging corner from the right bounced around the box and Kyle Robinson was on hand to toe-poke it past Michael Dike and level proceedings with 12 minutes of the 90 to play. Substitute striker David Tarmey had a right-footed effort outside the box roll wide of Athlone’s goal, the 20-year-old spotting Enda Minogue too far to the left but missing the target.
In the 88th minute, with Athlone really pushing for the win, Agbo Babatunde from the bench saw his wonderful left-footed effort off the right wing pushed out by Dike with two strong hands. The visitors came into a late, late winner from Dean Ebbe, a fantastic left-footed low cross from left-back Brian Torre was poached home for the striker’s 12th league goal, breaking the hearts of those in attendance and undoing the spirited performance from Treaty United.
Player of the Match: Dean Ebbe (Athlone Town)
Treaty United: Corey Chambers, Robbie Lynch (Christopher Horgan, 3’), Evan O’Connor, Richkov Boevi, Oisin O’Reilly, Colin Conroy, Steven Healy (Alec Byrne, 79’), Lee Devitt, Lee Lynch, Yoyo Mahdy (David Tarmey, 79′), Trpimir Vrljicak (Michael Dike, 51’).
Athlone Town: Enda Minogue, Oisin Duffy (Armando Oakley, HT), German Rodriguez, Dylan Hand, Brian Torre, Noah Van Geenen (Shane Forbes, HT), Aaron Connolly, Daniel McKenna (Peter McGregor, HT), Gideon Tetteh (Kyle Robinson, 60’), Leo Gaxha, Dean Ebbe.