Match Report

MATCH REPORT: Longford Town 0-2 UCD

Sun Apr 22nd 2018

Match Report by Tony Ghee

 

Longford Town’s unbeaten home record came to an end last night as league leaders UCD departed the City Calling Stadium with all three points after a comfortable 2-0 victory over the hosts.

It was a very disappointing display by Longford Town that produced only one shot on target and the lifeless performance was in complete contrast to the sparkling football that the team have played the rest of the season. It was UCD that played the better football and created virtually all the chances in the contest and the visitors richly deserved the victory.

UCD should have led at half-time but a combination of brilliant goalkeeping from Mick Kelly and some poor finishing by the students resulted in a goalless first half.

In the fifth minute, UCD striker Georgie Kelly beat the Town offside trap and raced into the Longford box from the left, however, his shot from a tight angle was well saved by Town keeper Mick Kelly.

On nineteen minutes, the towering Georgie Kelly headed over an O’Neill free-kick and then on thirty-four minutes, the big UCD striker was denied again as his twenty-five yard piledriver was brilliantly saved by Town stopper Mick Kelly.

Jason McClelland should have found the Longford net on thirty-nine minutes but his shot on the turn from just twelve yards out went wide.

Three minutes before the interval, a slick UCD move carved open the Town rearguard. A quick exchange of passes between Coffey and Georgie Kelly put in Daire O’Connor clean through on goal with just Town keeper Mick Kelly to beat, but the Collingwood Cup Player Of The Season failed to hit the target as Kelly produced a magnificent save.

UCD deservedly took the lead just after the hour mark when man-of-the-match Georgie Kelly won possession and slotted home from close range after a clever one-two with O’Neill.

The Town goal survived another scare four minutes later when a Kelly shot on the turn, on the edge of the Town box, sailed narrowly over the Town bar.

Longford’s only shot on target eventually arrived in the sixty-ninth minute when striker Dean Byrne skipped by his marker only to direct his curling effort straight at UCD keeper Kearns.

UCD wrapped up victory on seventy-seven minutes with Georgie Kelly’s second goal of the contest.
A quick break by the visitors resulted in McClelland rampaging down the left, he cut inside along the end-line and cleverly played a low ball into the path of the unmarked Kelly, and he rifled a scorching nine-yard shot to the roof of the Longford net.

Substitute Paul Doyle almost made it three for the visitors on eighty-one minutes, but his rising fifteen yard strike was superbly tipped over by Town keeper Mick Kelly.

Next up for Longford is another home game next Saturday night when Finn Harps come to the City Calling Stadium with the game kicking-off at the usual 7-30pm time.

LINE-UPS

Longford Town: Kelly, O’Connor, McDonnell, O’Reilly, Noack-Hofmann, Chambers, Dervin, Zambra, Galvin, Byrne, Mulhall.
Substitutes: McGlade for O’Connor (65 minutes), Meenan for Galvin (78 minutes), Verdon for Zambra (78 minutes).

UCD: Kearns,Tobin, Kouogun, Collins, Scales, Coffey, O’Neill, Sloggett, McClelland, O’Connor, Kelly.
Substitutes: Doyle for O’Connor (78 minutes), Mahdy for Coffey (82 minutes), Hanrahan for Kelly (89 minutes).

Match pictures by Tiernan Dolan



MATCH REPORT: Town Under 15’s lose away to Cabinteely

Sun Apr 15th 2018

REPORT BY TONY GHEE

The U15’s played what turned out to be a very competitive game on Saturday in Kiltiernan and although both sides were battling it out for their first win of the season, it would be very fair to say that a lot of positive and entertaining football was played by both sides.

The game began as a close affair with both teams having chances, the better of which had fallen to Cabinteely inside the first 20 minutes. Cabinteely’s early dominance then led to by far the biggest chance of the game as Cabinteely were awarded a penalty after their right winger was judged to be fouled in the box.

The resulting penalty turned out to be the kick starter of Longford’s first purple patch of the game though, as the spot kick was blazed over the bar. Longford then pushed on and had a few very good chances of their own. Nick Palmer had a header that could be deemed the pick of these chances, as he headed inches wide from an excellent cross from Ben Grey.

Longford’s dominance was not to be rewarded though and Cabinteely capitalized, as they scored a very well worked goal just 5 minutes before the break. Again Cabinteely’s right winger played a big part in their positive attacking play, as his darting run in behind Longford’s defenders and quality pullback meant the chance they created was easily converted and the score was 1 nil to Cabinteely at half time.

Longford began the second-half with another strong period of dominance as they really piled the pressure on a defensively strong Cabo back four.

As they pushed for an equalizer, some very good chances were created through a mix of good build up play and early crosses, with Nick Palmer forcing a great save from the Cabo keeper. Then Josh Geogheann turned brilliantly before running through to a 1v1 chance which could’ve easily led to a goal only for an outstanding piece of last ditch defending.

The missed opportunities would again prove to be rued by Longford, as with 15 minutes to go, another swift attacking counter from Cabinteely put them 2 nil up.

The last 15 minutes of the game opened up as Longford chased a goal in an effort to try get back into the game, which led to chances at both ends, as Cabo had chances on the counter attack too.

Overall Longford may rue missed chances after the game, but ultimately the performance was a positive one and they go into next week with renewed confidence before their first home league game of the season, a Midlands Derby versus Athlone Town.

Squad list:

Dan Gilmour
Josh Kilkenny
Jason Glancy
Jack Tiernan (C)
Kyle Doughty
Aaron Brennan
Sam Hayden
Ben Grey
Josh Shiels
Nick Palmer
Josh Geogheann

Substitutes:
Cody Lee (GK)
Jack Casey
Conor Lynam
Dylan Lynch
Adam Reilly
Andrew Lynch
Cian Neary

MATCH REPORT: Drogheda United 1-1 Longford Town

Sat Apr 14th 2018

Match Report by Tony Ghee

Longford Town were on the cusp of a brilliant away victory over then league leaders Drogheda United when they agonisingly conceded a ninety-fifth minute equaliser with the second-last kick off the game, as they failed to clear a Brennan free-kick and centre-half Ciaran Kelly pounced to rifle home to the bottom corner to secure a draw.

Longford Town have now dropped three points in stoppage time this season, as they also conceded a ninety-third minute goal in the 3-2 away defeat to Shelbourne in Tolka Park.

Drogheda remained unchanged from the side that defeated UCD 2-0 last week, while Neale Fenn made two changes to the Longford team that beat Cabinteely 3-0 last week, as Adam O’Connor came in for the ill McDonnell and Dean Byrne started instead of Sam Verdon.

The action in the first half was mainly contained to the opening fifteen minutes with both sides creating chances. In the fifth minute, Town winger Galvin raced down the left and played the ball inside to Dervin whose twenty-five yard rising strike went just over the Drogheda bar.

Two minutes later, a curling right-wing free-kick from Drogheda midfielder Brennan picked out the unmarked Gallagher fifteen yards out from goal but he headed over the Town bar.

On nine minutes, the visitors attacked down the right and an Elworthy cross resulted in home defender Kelly’s headed clearance falling to Town striker Mulhall but his goalbound shot was brilliantly blocked out for a corner.

Drogheda’s second chance of the contest came in the twelfth minute when an excellent slide-rule pass from Brennan put in McCaffrey and his weak shot was spilled by Town keeper Kelly with the ball being put out for a corner that was easily dealt with by the Town defence.

The game quietened down for the rest of the half although some promising moves especially from the Town broke down with the final ball either slightly undercooked or slightly over cooked.

Longford almost broke the deadlock in the opening minute of the second-half when impressive striker Byrne’s low diagonal shot from the left-edge of the Drogheda box whistled inches wide of the far post with home keeper Skinner well beaten.

The ‘Red & Black’ took the lead on fifty-eight minutes with a sumptuous twenty-five yard thunderbolt from Byrne that rocketed to the bottom left-corner of the net after superb set-up play from substitute Chambers (another of the club’s players who has come through from the underage ranks).

Dean Byrne, who put Town ahead on 58 minutes

Drogheda nearly levelled matters on sixty-two minutes when Chambers was dispossessed by Doyle on the edge of the Longford box and McCaffrey’s goalbound shot was magnificently blocked by Town centre-half O’Reilly.

Two minutes later, Drogheda came close again. A superb ball from Brennan found Duffy on the right and his cross evaded the Town defence to locate Doyle on the right near the end-line inside the box, but his effort from a very tight angle saved by Kelly.

Drogheda piled on the pressure in the final twenty minutes and on eighty-six minutes, substitute striker Lyons headed a Kane cross straight at Town keeper Kelly.

A minute later, Town keeper Kelly produced a world class save as he somehow tipped a close range Ciaran Kelly header over the bar.

It looked like the visitors were going to come away with all three points but Drogheda were given one last chance to snatch a draw in the fifth and final minute of stoppage time. A Farragher ball into the danger area was misjudged by the otherwise excellent centre-half O’Connor with his attempted headed clearance and although O’Reilly headed the ball away, the ball landed at the feet of the impressive Drogheda centre-half Ciaran Kelly and he drilled a low sixteen yard strike to the bottom right corner of the Town net for a dramatic equaliser with the second last kick of the match.

The equalising hero Ciaran Kelly was Drogheda’s best player while young Aodh Dervin was the Town’s man-of-the-match, but there were several other excellent Town displays.

The result means that UCD are the new league leaders on 16 points after their 3-2 victory over Finn Harps, Drogheda drop to second with 14 points, Shels who lost to Cabinteely are third on 13 points, Longford Town and Galway United are next on 12 points to complete the top five.

Next up for Neale Fenn’s charges is next Saturday’s home match against new leaders UCD at the City Calling Stadium. The Town may be without Shane Elworthy who left the stadium on crutches after going over on his ankle, but hopefully, Peter Hopkins will recover from his knock in time for next weekend.

Drogheda United: Skinner, Gallagher, Farragher, Ciaran Kelly, Kane, Brennan, Purdy, Hyland, Doyle, McCaffrey, Duffy.
Substitutes: Deasy for Gallagher (69 minutes), Lyons for McCaffrey (67 minutes), Meaney for Purdy (80 minutes).

Longford Town: Mick Kelly, Elworthy, O’Reilly, O’Connor, Noack-Hofmann, Hopkins, Zambra, Dervin, Galvin, Byrne, Mulhall.
Substitutes: Chambers for Elworthy (55 minutes), McGlade for Hopkins (68 minutes), Verdon for Byrne (83 minutes).

MATCH REPORT: Longford Town 3-0 Cabinteely

Sun Apr 8th 2018

Report by Tony Ghee

Longford Town moved to within two points of the triple joint leaders Drogheda, Shelbourne and UCD with a 3-0 victory at home to Cabinteely at the City Calling Stadium last night as late, late goals from substitutes Hopkins and Byrne sealed a rather flattering triumph for Neale Fenn’s charges.

The Town took the lead after just seven minutes when Chambers sharp pass set Elworthy free down the right wing and his low cross deflected off Cabinteely defender Butler into the net just inside the post.

Four minutes later, a surging run from Galvin created an opening only for his shot to go just over the Cabinteely bar.

Longford suffered a big blow on sixteen minutes as star centre-half Danny O’Reilly had to be taken off with a head wound that required seven stitches, but he should be fit for next week’s trip to leaders Drogheda United.

The visitors produced a promising attack just after the half-hour mark but Watson’s twenty-two yard strike was straight at Town keeper Kelly.

The second-half produced far more chances for both sides and Cabinteely will be wondering how they failed to score as they missed several excellent chances, but a combination of good saves from Kelly, resolute defending including a crucial goal-line block from Noack-Hofmann, and poor finishing, all contributed to the Town recording their second successive clean sheet.

Twice during the second-half, Hofmann and Verdon combined to almost increase the home side’s lead. Two minutes after the resumption, Hofmann’s first cross from the left was just missed by the inrushing Verdon when any touch at all would have diverted the ball to the net. The second Hofmann cross on fifty-four minutes hit off Verdon’s back and ended up in the Cabinteely keeper’s arms.

Cabinteely should have found the Town net on 49 minutes but the Visitors missed two superb chances to draw level. The unmarked Ball found space inside the Longford box but his effort was well saved by Kelly, the rebound came out to Marty-Waters and his low ball across the box picked out Fox who somehow blazed over the Town bar from just eight yards out.

On 63 minutes, Cabinteely again came close to an equaliser when Andy O’Reilly’s cross found the unmarked Fox fourteen yards out but he headed over the Town bar.

At the other end, a Verdon long range shot whistled narrowly wide of the Cabinteely post but that was followed by two good opportunities for the visitors. On eighty-one minutes, a Ball corner to the back post was headed back towards the opposite post by Butler to the unmarked Knight who nodded wide. Three minutes later, former Longford winger Simon pounced on a mistake by Dervin to race in on goal, however, Town keeper Kelly magnificently saved Simon’s effort.

The Town sealed victory with two late goals from substitutes Hopkins and Byrne in the dying embers of the contest. A brilliant pass from Byrne in the eighty-sixth minute found Hopkins on the right, Hopkins controlled the ball with a deft touch before unleashing a powerful low diagonal shot that rocketed to the bottom left corner of the net. Then in injury time, Byrne waltzed his way past three defenders to fire home the Town’s third and final goal of the night.

Longford Town: Kelly, McDonnell, O’Reilly, Noack-Hofmann, Elworthy, Dervin, Zambra, Verdon, Galvin, Chambers, Mulhall.
Substitutes: O’Connor for O’Reilly (16 minutes), Hopkins for Chambers (59 minutes), Byrne for Verdon (85 minutes).

Cabinteely FC: McGowan, Tuite, Butler, Knight, Stokes, Ball, Lotefa, Watson, O’Reilly, Fox, Marty-Waters.
Substitutes: Casey for Lotefa (67 minutes), Simon for Fox (77 minutes).

Referee: Adriano Reale.

 



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