Athlone Town manager Terry Butler says that he is proud of his team, despite their final home game of the season failing to produce an illusive first league victory. Athlone have failed to win a match on the pitch this season, although they were awa
Athlone Town manager Terry Butler says that he is proud of his team, despite their final home game of the season failing to produce an illusive first league victory.
Athlone have failed to win a match on the pitch this season, although they were awarded the three points for a game against Wexford earlier in the year after their opponents fielded an ineligible player.
Friday night saw them play out a scoreless draw with Cobh Ramblers, and Butler stated that he was delighted with his team’s performance.
“It was a great performance. I know your going to keep asking me about this inevitable win, but the way I think about it is where we came from.
“A couple of months ago we were beaten by six and sevens, and it was disheartening the dressing room. You can see the team spirit in there.
“That monkey is on our back, I’m not going to lie, to try and get that win. I think we will get it before the end of the season. We were a bit unlucky tonight.”
A number of players from the club’s underage teams have made the breakthrough to the senior side in recent weeks, with young centre back Paddy Kelly perhaps Athlone’s best player in the Cobh game.
Butler believes that the club need to continue to nurture their emerging talent in order for the team to improve.
“The real positive for me is the underage players that have come into the squad. Paddy Kelly came in tonight and was good, it was Ciaran Burns’ debut tonight. We have given a lot of debuts over the season, and that is what it is about here at the club: trying to build it up.”
Next week will see The Town travel to take on Shelbourne in the league, which will be then followed by a three week break before their final game of the season away to Wexford.
While it may be difficult to keep players motivated during such a such a long break in the build up to a solitary game, the Athlone manager believes it will do his team good.
“There’s a lot of lads going back to school, so we are going to give them a week off. We will get going again then after that and prepare for the Wexford game. Obviously it is hard to keep players motivated for three weeks without a game, but we might throw in one or two friendlies.”
“The break will do them well. A lot of lads were under pressure both here, trying to travel up and down for training, and with their leaving cert and college places and all that. It is a very young dressing room so we have to take all that exterior stuff into consideration.”
