The quest for a first point of the Women’s Premier Division season continues for Sligo Rovers as they welcome Athlone Town to the Showgrounds on Saturday evening, 5pm, writes Conall Collier.

Fifth-placed Athlone Town will go into the encounter some eight points adrift of leaders Peamount Utd, but with a game in hand, and they will be aiming to add another three points as they bid to close the gap on the top four.

Buoyed by a 2-0 victory against Cork City last weekend, they will adopt a confident approach and will be keen to get another victory.

Last week they managed a fourth minute lead goal from Chloe Singleton, but they had to wait until the 80^th minute before Dana Scheriff wrapped up the three points with a second goal although Gillian Keenan and Madison Gibson also had chances.

The Westmeath side will certainly pose some serious questions for the Bit O’Red this weekend.

However, looking for positives after six successive defeats is quite straightforward for manager Steve Feeney after yet another encouraging display at Eamonn Deacy Park despite a narrow (1-2) defeat against Galway Utd last Saturday.

After conceding two goals in the opening six minutes, the Sligo Rovers players displayed remarkable resilience and fortitude to get back into the game.

Galway failed to capitalise on a number of good chances and the Bit O’Red got back into contention in the 57th minute when Emma Doherty headed to the net. 

Substitute Fiona Doherty went close to an equaliser soon after.

Sligo Rovers showed enough improvement last weekend against Galway to suggest that they can also pose problems for Athlone and a repeat performance could be enough to get some points on the board.