Finnish winger Sofia Maatta proved a thorn in their side, creating all three goals on a chastening night for the League of Ireland champions at Petershill Park in Glasgow.<\/p>\n
After 72 hours which has brought major uncertainty to their season, one thing the midlanders will know for sure is that their hopes of extending their participation in the inaugural competition now hinge on a minor miracle.<\/p>\n
Athlone held their own against the Scottish side for extended spells in the game, especially in the first half, but created very little. Only Kelly Brady\u2019s early strike, after she capitalised on a lax backpass from the experienced Amy Anderson, troubled goalkeeper Lea Gibson.<\/p>\n
Glasgow \u2013 with Ireland international Erin McLaughlin in their line-up \u2013 took the lead 15 minutes in and the goal came via a lightning counter-attack. An Athlone corner was cleared and Maatta outpaced Shauna Brennan down the left, reaching touch before delivering a low cross into the area.<\/p>\n
It was tantalisingly beyond the grasp of Town goalkeeper Megan Plaschko but perfect for Anderson to apply the finish at the back post.<\/p>\n
The visitors withstood 10 minutes of sustained pressure after that and they asserted themselves for much of the remainder of the first half. Yet, it was Glasgow who almost had a second. Plaschko superbly denied South African international Linda Motlhalo, tipping her effort around the post.<\/p>\n
Interim boss John Sullivan will have been pleased with much of what he saw from his new charges. Following Colin Fortune\u2019s shock departure, he will guide their attempts to retain their league title in the weeks to come.<\/p>\n
They needed a goal though and in the driving Glasgow rain, they simply could not conjure one, or even a chance. Instead, Plaschko again did well to deny Glasgow when she saved Abigail Harrison\u2019s downward header early in the second half.<\/p>\n
Maatta\u2019s quality proved the difference. Brennan was caught out by the Finn who sent another low delivery into the area. Motlhalo had time and space to take a touch and find the bottom corner.<\/p>\n
Five minutes later, captain for the evening Maddie Gibson was dispossessed and Maatta was again too quick for Brennan, beating her on the outside before pulling back for Lisa Forrest \u2013 sister of Celtic star James \u2013 who scored from six yards. Brady went close again in the closing stages, owing much to good pressure from Gibson, but the City goalkeeper kept her clean sheet intact.<\/p>\n
Glasgow City: Gibson; Evans (Brownlee, 85), Golob, Smit, Muir (Warrington, 69); McLaughlin (Lockwood, 69), Anderson; Maatta (Whelan, 85), Motlhalo, Forrest; Harrison (Kozlova, 56).<\/p>\n
Athlone Town: Plaschko; K Brennan, Shine, McNally, S Brennan (Rice, 71); Slevin (Groves, 79), Waesch; Strickland (Murphy O\u2019Connor, 71); Molloy, Brady, Gibson.<\/p>\n
Ref: Tja\u0161a Misja (Slovenia)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Finnish winger Sofia Maatta proved a thorn in their side, creating all three goals on a chastening night…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13274,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,898,112],"class_list":{"0":"post-13273","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-latest-news-ticker","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13273\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}