There was just one thing missing for Madie Gibson from last week's historic Cup semi-final hat-trick at Lissywollen.
As it happened, the Athlone striker's parents Anne, Frank and her sister Jo Jo flew into Ireland from New Jersey AFTER the 3-0 victory against holders Wexford Youths put the midlanders into their first ever Cup final.
They missed a superb hat-trick by Gibson, who joined mid-season after two years with Gintra in Lithuania.
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She explained: "We weren't sure if we would make the semi-final, so we said we'd wait until this weekend, when we were playing Wexford again anyway!
"It was awesome but it would have been cooler if they were there.
"It was definitely a great atmosphere afterwards, everyone was super-happy. We're all really excited but still focused for this weekend. We're not getting ahead of ourselves."
"Hopefully it will be another good match."
The win provided further proof that Athlone have arrived as a force in the WNL.
Such has been the swiftness of their transformation, Wexford - the current table-toppers - beat Athlone 7-1 last season.
But another Athlone victory tomorrow would see them close the gap to the top to just three points.
"Yeah, it was funny because one of our team-mates had sent a video of them losing that game 7-1 last year and she was like, 'Oh, how times have changed!'.
"It was cool to see how far this club has come in just a year and to think how far we'll go in a couple more years, and I just think this club is going to get better and better."
Gibson has no direct links to Ireland but became a tour guide this week as the family crammed as much of the country into a midweek trip as possible.
Her move to Athlone came about when her college friend Dana Scheriff, who joined the club last December, suffered an ankle injury and she asked Gibson if she fancied joining to help the club out.
The attacker recalled: "She knew I was back home from Lithuania, she asked if I wanted to come here and I was like, 'yeah'.
"It's definitely my style of play, a little bit more physical and fast. I'm happy I came."
The Monmouth University alumni has enrolled in TUS in Athlone for next year, so Gibson will be with the club for the 2023 season.
For now, her mind is focused on the hurt Wexford will hope to use on their return to Lisseywollen tomorrow.
"Yeah, definitely, we know they're going to come out with revenge on their minds, but we're still going to play how we play," stressed Gibson.
"As our manager said, the semi-final is in the past. And we still believe we can win the League if we can win the next couple of games."
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