Matthew Hare had reason to reflect on the fickleness of football fortunes as Sligo Rovers arrived safely in the second round of the Harp FAI Cup yesterday evening.

Five days earlier, he had known the desolation of putting the ball into his own net to consign his team to an expensive championship defeat at Cork. Now all was changed, gloriously changed, as he abandoned his allotted posting in central defence in the 73rd minute to produce the goal which decided a game that was lurching towards stalemate.

Gary Connaughton, under pressure from Marcus Hollows, was unable to make the effective clearance as he raced out to meet Mark Hutchinson's hopeful through pass and when the ball broke to Hare, the big Englishman was equal to the task of directing it into an empty net from 16 yards.

Sligo, slow to settle, grew from an uncertain start to dominate in the second half, but player manager Nicky Reid, leading by example in midfield, will be the first to acknowledge that the room for improvement is ample.

St Mel's Park revisited presented the familiar spectacle of mountainous application and a setting bleak enough to tax the capacities of even the most imaginative.

Outside the graffiti of "Turley is Magic" and "Larry Be Wise", testimony to another more successful era for the Midlands club, had at last been obliterated.

And in a sense, it said it all on an evening when Athlone, now fallen on lean times, searched in vain for the spark which would have enabled them to deliver the first of this season's Cup upsets.

Joey Malone, the third manager this season to be entrusted with the challenge of renewing a great tradition, could scarcely have asked for more effort from a team in which Colin Fortune, Adrian Carberry and, in the first half, Paul McGee contributed generously.

But when the screws were turned after the interval, the superior class of the Premier Division team began to show and the familiar spectre of defeat again enveloped the home team.

With the game in injury time, Carberry had a chance to take the tie to a replay, but after eluding Hare's tackle, he saw his shot smothered by the advancing Nick Broujos.

With that lost opportunity went their hopes of rescuing a deteriorating season and before the end Sligo were denied the second goal which would have defined their superiority more starkly when Alex Rowlands struck a post.

In victory, Sligo will attribute much of the credit to the resource of Hare, Ross McGlynn and, not least, Brojous during Athlone's best spell in the second quarter. But ultimately, it was the solid midfield grafting of Reid, Conor O'Grady and Hollows which saw them safely home to port.

Athlone's biggest attendance of the season, measured in hundreds rather than thousands, had justifiable reason to expect an early onslaught by the men in blue and navy stripes on an evening when they needed to get among the visiting defence right from the start.

Instead they had to wait until the 24th minute for the first real action when Carberry projected a pass through the mud to give McGee a chance of looking into the whites of Broujos's eyes.

Unfortunately for them, the ball didn't hold up sufficiently to enable McGee to make contact before the goalkeeper made a brave save at the feet of the midfielder and set the mood for a convincing performance from one of Sligo's senior citizens.

Later Broujos would again deny McGee, this time at the end of a crisply struck 30-yard shot, but gradually, inexorably, Sligo crept forward to expose the first signs of frailty in the home defence.

Charles, in space, failed to make the decisive contact from a measured corner kick by Alex Rowlands and later the big man would spurn another inviting opportunity when, after turning Thomas Silke, he shot wide from just inside the penalty area.

Sligo were entitled to anticipate a better return in at least one of those instances and shortly afterwards Athlone were reprieved for a third occasion when Connaughton was perfectly positioned to tip over Reid's meaty drive.

Thanks to Hare's moment of glory it all came right for them in the end.

Athlone Town: G Connaughton; J Dooley, K Colsh, T Silke, C Holohan, R McLouhlin, A Kelly, C Fortune, P McGee, S Mullen, A Carberry.

Sligo Rovers: N Broujos; A Callaghan, R McGlynn, M Hare, M Hutchinson, M Hollows, N Reid, C O'Grady, A Rowlands, W Charles, S Flannery.

Referee: G Perry (Dublin).