Treaty promotion push gathers pace ahead of Cabo showdown

TREATY United’s senior men’s side remain in second place in the SSE Airtricity League First Division following their 4-1 away win over Athlone Town last week. Tommy Barrett’s charges now welcome 8th placed Cabinteely to the Markets Field on Friday night at 7:45pm in their next game.

Goals from Ed McCarthy, Jack Lynch and Sean McSweeney and Marc Ludden sealed what may well be the sides best performance to date. The impressive victory was Treaty’s ninth in the campaign and sees them level with Galway United on 32 points but are placed in second due to scoring more than John Caulfield’s side.

Treaty boss Tommy Barrett paid tribute a glowing tribute to his players after the win: “Any time you score four goals, especially away from home you have to be delighted. The lads, to a man were brilliant.

“They were really good goals. We have got a couple like that this year, in UCD, Ed’s one up in Galway was a really good goal as well but three of the ones against Athlone were particularly very good. 

“We are delighted with it. We have been saying it now for a number of weeks and months that we can play like that. Just go and play and against Athlone it came out in 20 minutes / half an hour and hopefully it can continue.”

McCarthy opened up the scoring in the 35th minute by finishing off a sublime pass sent by Kieran Hanlon. The only goal of the game’s stiff first half did raise suspicions of offside, however referee Jason Mannix confirmed Treaty’s early lead. 

The first half concluded with Athlone’s Tunmise Sobowale receiving a yellow, which only seemed to inspire Treaty’s momentum going into the second half. Treaty keeper Tadhg Ryan seemed comfortable under the pressure from Athlone’s Jack Reynolds whom he denied with a rapid save, mere minutes before Athlone’s Kurtis Byrne fired a shot over the crossbar.

Even though Athlone made a triple substitution in the 55th minute, Treaty continued to dictate the game. Treaty’s attack only became sharper, as captain Lynch found the back of the Athlone goal from outside the box to put the Shannonsiders 2-0 up. McSweeney to extend Treaty’s lead to three soon after before Ludden nabbed a fourth. Byrne netted a consolation goal for Athlone late on. 

Treaty will be hot favourites to continue their promotion push when Cabinteely come to town on Friday hoping to avenge the 2-1 defeat they suffered to the Dublin outfit back in May. McSweeney had levelled after Kieran Marty Waters had put Cabo but Villius Labutis bagged the winner moments for Pat Devlin’s men.

Despite the positivity surrounding his side, Barrett is also warning supporters not to get carried away as a swift loss of form could see his side drop down the table: “It was a good night for us but you always have to be wary and looking over your shoulder in this division.

“I know we have skipped past Galway on goal difference but there is a long way to go yet. We are just concentrating on Cabinteely. It’s going to be a very tough game for us and they are the only team we haven’t got anything off of this year yet.” 

Elsewhere, the club’s women’s side will be looking to get back on track when they welcome Cork City to Jackman Park tonight (7:45pm). Treaty have lost heavily in their last two games against top of the table Peamount and second placed Shelbourne. The last time they met Cork, Niall Connolly’s side earned a 3-2 victory in what was their first win of the season. The game is live on LOI.TV.