Glasgow City 3-0 Athlone Town
Athlone Town have it all to do in next week's Europa Cup first qualifying round second leg after they succumbed to a 3-0 defeat to Glasgow City, following a tough night for the SSE Airtricity Women's Premier Division leaders at Petershill.
Goals from Amy Anderson, Linda Motlhalo and Lisa Forrest make the Scottish Premier League side strong favourites to progress ahead of next Wednesday's second leg at Athlone Town Stadium.
The result rounds off what has been a difficult few days for the Lissywollen side, who were rocked by the resignation of manager Colin Fortune on Sunday. This, despite the Westmeath side being close to retaining their Premier Division crown and also being just one step away from a fourth successive FAI Cup final.
Featuring in their fifth European tie this season, it was the League of Ireland champions who began the game the brighter, with Kelly Brady forcing an early stop from City goalkeeper Lee Gibson after 11 minutes.
Played in poor conditions in the Glasgow suburbs, the hosts, who featured Donegal's Erin McLaughlin and Dublin's Emily Whelan, wrestled control of this game soon after.
Athlone goalkeeper Megan Plaschko will be disappointed not to have got a more telling touch on a Sofia Maatta cross after the Finnish winger negotiated a way around Town full-back Kellie Brennan.
Plaschko was only able to palm Maatta's squared ball onto the foot of Anderson, who finished the move from close range.
Looking for a quick reset, Athlone, led by interim boss John Sullivan, struggled to retain much possession for the next 15 or so minutes but did successfully limit the Scottish side's threat.
Plaschko did keep out Motlhalo's drive from close range on 27 minutes, the closest Leanne Ross' charges came to doubling their lead before the interval.
Athlone did end the half the stronger, stretching the City rearguard but were unable to capitalise on their energetic finish to the opening 45.
Plaschko was again involved early in the second half when she pulled off two stops in quick succession. The first a full-stretch save to her left to deny Abi Harrison from a cross from Forrest, sister of Celtic star James, while the US national kept out Lana Golob's header from Lisa Evans' resulting corner.
However, the FAI Cup semi-finalists were unable to resist the pressure and fell further behind on 55 minutes. Shauna Brennan had her pocket picked on the Town left, allowing Maatta to gain possession before setting up South African Motlhalo for an easy finish.
Maatta picked up her hat-trick of assists on the hour when she rounded Kellie Brennan before picking out Forrest from the end line. The teen applied the finish from close range for Glasgow's third.
Sligo native Roisin Molloy almost made the most of a Gibson error on 68 minutes. The Glasgow netminder flapped at a cross from Town skipper Madison Gibson on her 50th European appearance for the Scottish side. But Glasgow's Gibson recovered well as she closed down Molloy's effort to push the low shot wide.
Glasgow looked to further strengthen their grip on this tie and centre-half Golob volleyed wide after Athlone failed to clear a Forrest corner with 15 to play, while Plaschko got down to block an effort from substitute Nicole Kozlova.
Lee Gibson again had to make up for an error when she misjudged another troublesome Madison Gibson cross late on. Molloy hit the follow up but the City skipper managed to recover once more to shut out the Athlone winger.
Glasgow City: Gibson; Evans (Brownlie 85), Golob, Smit, Muir (Warrington 69); McLaughlin (Lockwood 69), Anderson; Maatta (Whelan 85), Motlhalo, Forrest; Harrison (Kozlova 56).
Athlone Town: Plaschko; K Brennan, Shine, McNally, S Brennan (Rice 71); Molloy, Slevin (Groves 80), Waesch, Strickland (Murphy-O'Connor 71); Brady, Gibson.
Referee: Tjasa Misja (Slovenia).
