Dundalk FC claim opening night victory against Athlone

Dundalk FC made a winning start to their return to the SSE Airtricity League First Division after beating fellow promotion favourites Athlone Town 1-0 at Oriel Park.

A first-half header from 16-year-old defender Vinnie Leonard, in his first league start, was all that separated the sides as The Lilywhites got their 2025 campaign off to a flyer.

Ciaran Kilduff named an unchanged 11 from the side that defeated Drogheda United in the Jim Malone Cup match – a performance that impressed many two weeks ago.

Their first opportunity of the night came on eight minutes when Sean Keogh’s punt up the pitch was headed towards goal by Brian Torre before Daryl Horgan nipped in to test Athlone goalkeeper Matthew Connor, who was then forced into a save to keep it at 0-0.

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In what was an emotionally-charged night at Oriel, the famous old ground erupted on 36 minutes when Aodh Dervin’s right-field corner was powered home by the head of Leonard, who just two days beforehand was on Republic of Ireland U17 duty in Spain.

Dundalk looked to make the points safe in the second half, with Eoin Kenny cutting inside the left before his curling-effort just missed the intended target by a fraction.

After being played in by Horgan, Kenny’s ball across goal was met by the inrushing Leo Gaxha, however the ex-Athlone man looked destined to make it 2-0 but lost his footing.

Skipper Horgan thereafter broke forward towards goal and got himself away from former Dundalk youngster Dylan Hand, but with only Connor to beat, the Athlone keeper pulled off a remarkable save to keep his team in the contest and the score at 1-0.

Former Waterford stopper Connor soon after that produced another save from Horgan after he had been neatly set up by Dean Ebbe – while Kenny almost capitalised on a mix-up in the Athlone backline before seeing his opportunistic hit trickle wide of the target.

The Lilywhites endured a couple of nervy moments as the game entered its final act, however Athlone still failed to muster a shot on target as Dundalk held on for the win.

Dundalk FC: Enda Minogue; Conor O’Keeffe, Mayowa Animasahun, Vinnie Leonard, Sean Keogh (Sean McHale 90+2); Aodh Dervin, Harry Groome (Keith Ward 86); Leo Gaxha (Muhammad Haris 86), Eoin Kenny, Daryl Horgan; Dean Ebbe (Andy Paraschiv 76)

Subs not used: Peter Cherrie (gk), Luke Mulligan, TJ Molloy, Aidan Russell-Vargas, Shane Tracey

Athlone Town: Matthew Connor; John Ross Wilson, Cole Omorehiomwan, Dylan Hand, Brian Torre (Billy Gilmore 82); Noe Baba, Bastien Hery (Aaron Connolly 67); Kyle Robinson (Ben Feeney 55), Kailin Barlow (Gideon Tetteh 67), Declan McDaid (Adam Wixted 82); Dean Williams

Subs not used: Lee Axworthy (gk), German Fuentes, Kyle O’Connor, Matthew Leal

Referee: Marc Lynch (Galway)