Kildare County 0 v 1 Athlone Town

Saturday 30th May 2009
League of Ireland Division 1
Station Road, Newbridge, County Kildare (Republic of Ireland)
Attendance: 150
Admission: €10
Programme: €3



With the season over in England, I headed over to Ireland for my footy fix in late May. The original plan was to watch Shamrock Rovers v Drogheda United, however a limited capacity at Shamrock's recently opened Tallaght Stadium of 3,500 until fully completed meant I could not guarantee being able to get a ticket. So instead, I headed out to Newbridge, a 30 minute train ride west of Dublin, to take in this League of Ireland Division 1 clash. The Station Road stadium is located close to the train station, just as well as my train only arrived 5 minutes before kick off. This did

not promise to be a good game, with Kildare marooned at the bottom of the table with just 1 point from 13 games, and Athlone not doing much better having only scored 10 points.

On a very warm, sunny evening, the game was actually very even and Kildare could count themselves unlucky to lose by an own goal half way through the first half. They had the better chances throughout, but paid the prices for completely lacking a cutting edge.

The crowd probably numbered around 200 and the game had a

very sedate, laid-back atmosphere throughout, not even the goal or a couple of gilt edged chances being missed stirring much

emotion. Whilst this made for a pleasant, relaxing evening watching football in the summer sunshine, there is little reason to encourage a special visit to Kildare County, particularly with the many other football clubs in the Dublin area.

How their seasons turned out...

Kildare County: Unsurprisingly, they finished bottom of the league, and then went into liquidation before the relegation play-off match

Athlone Town: Finished in 10th place out of 12 teams