GALWAY UNITED suffered their ninth league defeat in a row when Athlone Town won this key relegation battle at St Mel's Parka last night.

Warren Parkes, the National League under 21 star, grabbed the all important goal in the 68th minute. Parkes, playing his fourth competitive match in 10 days, showed great composure in running on from the half way line to calmly slot the ball past Robert Forde in the Galway goal.

In a poor and sometimes scrappy game both sides had a few chances to open the scoring. In the first half there were just two clear cut chances for both sides. The first, on 16 minutes, fell to Donal Flynn whose well struck free kick hit the crossbar