Athlone Town 2
Waterford FC 5
Waterford FC signalled their league title intentions at the earliest opportunity as they cantered to an opening night win away to Athlone Town in the first league game of the Ian Morris era.
First half goals from the front three of Cian Kavanagh, Phoenix Patterson and Junior Quitirna effectively killed the game as a contest, and the men in orange kicked on in the second half to assert their dominance.
The Blues (in their orange strip) started brightly although Brian Murphy was the first of the goalkeepers called into action as he was tested by Glen McAuley on three minutes.
He didn’t prove to be busy for all too long and it was his opposite number, Micheál Schlingermann who happened to be in the thick of things. Ian Morris’ men began to gain a foothold in the match with their pace and precision on the counter causing all sorts of problem for the Midlanders.
Junior Quitirna shot narrowly wide on 7 minutes before a lovely interchange with the impressive Darragh Power created an opportunity for Phoenix Patterson, but he couldn’t profit from a somewhat tight angle.
A double safe from Schlingermann denied Patterson and Cian Kavanagh on 12 minutes as Waterford were left to wonder how they weren’t in the lead - but that worry didn’t last much longer as three minutes later, Kavanagh rose highest from a Quitirna corner to bury a bullet header low and hard to the net. 1-0 to the Blues.
The droves of loyal travelling support didn’t have to wait long to see a second goal for their side and it came courtesy of a brilliant driving run from the exciting Yassine En-Neyah. His effort from outside the box stung the hands of the goalkeeper, but Patterson was on hand to clatter the rebound into the roof of the net from close range.
That man En-Neyah was sent in one-on-one as a result of a poor attempt to play offside from Athlone but Andy Spain was on hand to make a remarkable recovering challenge when it looked like the midfielder had the goal at his mercy.
The game was effectively over as a contest after just 36 minutes. A poor challenge right on the edge of the box gave the Blues a decent scoring opportunity and up stepped Quitirna to whip a beautiful free-kick into the bottom right corner. 3-0 to the Blues who were value for that advantage and the away fans in dreamland.
Credit to Athlone, they did try and dent the advantage, going close from a Glen McAuley free-kick and a narrowly wide driven effort from Jackson Hulme, but they were often left frustrated as captain Eddie Nolan marshalled magnificently throughout the evening while Dutchman Youri Habing got little to no change off Kilmacthomas man Darragh Power. Nolan’s partner Kevin Joshua also impressed on debut.
Leading 3-0 at half-time, it was a case of seeing it out and securing a clean sheet for the Blues in the second half.
Waterford clicked into another gear at the start of the second period, and they grabbed their fourth of the night eight minutes into it.
Jackson Hulme sliced an attempted back-pass and on like a flash came Junior, chopping inside his man and slotting home his second goal into the bottom left corner, with the former Charlton man a delight to watch all evening.
As the game progressed, with a four goal advantage, the visitors were happy to keep the ball and torment Martin Russell’s men in triangles. It was a five star display for the most part and it nearly had five goals to match when Patterson drove at Andy Spain with step overs before drilling narrowly over the crossbar, with substitute Louis Britton then firing across the face of goal.
A consolation came for the hosts on 79 minutes. Substitute Oisín Duffy was bright at full-back once introduced at the interval and his overlapping run down the right allowed him to pull the ball back to the penalty spot, where Stephen Kenny was on hand to lash home into the far corner and give the home side something to cheer for.
Britton did well to hold off his marker but the Bristol loanee powered over, but it didn’t matter as he was soon picked out unmarked by a perfect delivery from Patterson which allowed the target man to thunder a header into an empty net to restore the four goal cushion.
Ian Morris won't have been best pleased with the concession of two late goals as Glen McAuley stepped up with a spot-kick on 86 minutes, firing to the top right corner despite Brian Murphy diving the right way to make it 5-2.
The Blues almost made it six of the best on the cusp of stoppage time as Roland Idowu went close, but five was fine as the Blues take three points back to the RSC ahead of next week's meeting with Bray Wanderers.
Athlone Town: Micheál Schlingermann; Daniel Dobbin (Oisin Duffy ‘45), Derek Daly, Noah van Geenen, Andy Spain; Jackson Hulme, Stephen Kenny, Quincy Nkansah (Sami Clarke ‘60), Youri Habing (Aaron Connolly ‘77), Glen McAuley, Thomas Oluwa (Success Edogun ‘75).
Waterford FC: Brian Murphy; Darragh Power, Eddie Nolan, Kevin Joshua, Richard Taylor; Shane Griffin, Yassine En-Neyah, Anthony Wordsworth; Phoenix Patterson, Cian Kavanagh (Louis Britton ‘74), Junior Quitirna (Roland Idowu ‘74)
Referee: Kevin O’Sullivan
