League Report: Dundalk 1 - 0 Longford Town

Dundalk got the defence of their Premier Division title off to the perfect start with a hard fought victory over Longford Town at Oriel Park on Friday evening.

Daryl Horgan scored the only goal in the 15th minute from a Ronan Finn cross to give the Lilywhites all three points on a blustery night in County Louth.

Longford had the first effort when a Gary Shaw header was straight at Gary Rogers. Dundalk's Chris Shields then had a shot blocked by the defence after Ronan Finn had the initial break.

The Lilywhites didn’t have to wait long to get their first goal of the 2015 league season when that man Finn latched onto a flick from David McMillan. He took the ball to the byline and put in the perfect low cross for the on rushing Daryl Horgan who finished past Paul Hunt to give the hosts the lead.

There was little else to report until the end of the half apart from Finn heading into the side netting from a Richie Towell free-kick.

Dundalk had the better of the opening exchanges of the second half and should have doubled their lead when Sean Gannon’s free-kick was knocked down by Dane Massey into the path of McMillan but his shot on the turn was expertly saved by substitute goalkeeper Paul Skinner.

Andy Boyle’s header crashed off the crossbar from a perfect Horgan cross before Brian Gartland had a header cleared off the line from another Horgan corner.

McMillan headed just wide from a Horgan cross and the Galway native had a shot which was gathered at the second attempt by the goalkeeper.

In what was perhaps the best move of the match, Finn sent in a brilliantly deep cross to the head of Kurtis Byrne and he knocked it down to Towell, who started the move, but his volley was terrifically saved by Skinner.

Longford had two efforts saved by Rogers before Shaw had the best chance for the visitors. The striker appeared to push Massey and he took the ball down and fired it towards goal but Rogers somehow got a hand to it onto the crossbar in a terrific save.

Dundalk: Gary Rogers; Sean Gannon, Brian Gartland, Andy Boyle (capt), Dane Massey; Chris Shields, Richie Towell; John Mountney, Ronan Finn (Paddy Barrett 90), Daryl Horgan; David McMillan (Kurtis Byrne 76).
 

Subs not used: Shane Grimes Jake Kelly, Ciaran O’Connor, Georgie Poynton, Gabriel Sava (gk)

Booked: Shields (49), Mountney (69).

Longford Town: Paul Hunt (Paul Skinner 28); Pat Sullivan, Pat Flynn, William Tyrell, Conor Powell; Lorcan Shannon (David O’Sullivan 60), Mark Salmon (c), Stephen Rice, Kevin O’Connor, Martin Deady (Ben Ayman Mohamed 73); Gary Shaw.
 

Subs not used: Tom Morris, Kaleem Simon, Rhys Gorman, Mark Rossiter.

Booked: Rice (44), O’Connor (53).

Referee: Neil Doyle

Attendance: 3,336