Athlone Town  2 - 2  Limerick 37

Limerick 37: Hayes 40, Ryan 90

Saturday 12^th April 2008

Ten-man Limerick 37 salvaged a point with a goal in stoppage time at Lissywollen. Limerick had much the better of the exchanges in the early stages and it was just reward for Limerick who struck first with the opening goal five minutes before the break.

Willie Bruton's cross from the right wing picked out James Hayes who, in spite of being surrounded by a number of Town defenders, headed past the veteran Anthony Jinks in the Town goal.

Limerick sat back after the break & Athlone deservedly equalised on 76 minutes following a corner kick.

The dead ball delivery from Anthony Hayes was not dealt with by Limerick, and when Eric Lavine played the ball back into the danger zone Phillip Reilly forced the ball home from close range.

Dermot Lennon's men looked to have been handed a big advantage when Limerick were reduced to ten men with 10 minutes left. Goalkeeper Dave Ryan fumbled a long ball forward from defence while under pressure from Niall Scullion and was shown the red card by the referee when he tugged on the Athlone man's jersey in an attempt to rectify the situation. Phillip Reilly stepped up and gave substitute keeper Kevin Fitzpatrick no chance with the spot kick. Approaching full time, Niall Scullion forced Fitzpatrick into a fine save as he pushed a shot around his post.

In the third minute of stoppage time Athlone hearts were broken when Limerick grabbed an equaliser. Brendan Daly's fantastic cross from the right fell to substitute David Ryan, who found the net with a fine headed effort to send both players and travelling support into raptures.

MOM: Darren Harrington

Athlone Town: Jinks, Rossiter (Hayes 45), Reilly, Hope, Keady, C Jinks, Hamm, Scullion, Moran (O'Dowd 54), Lavine, McCartney (McGee 87)

Limerick 37: Dave Ryan, Daly, Cleary, Danaher, Barrett, Grant, Fogarty, Manjor (Cosgrove 37), Hayes (David Ryan 77), Bruton (Fitzpatrick 81), Harrington