League Report: Longford Town 0 - 0 Derry City

Derry City failed to break the deadlock on Saturday night despite Longford Town playing with ten men for 70 minutes after referee Ben Connolly showed Conor Powell a straight red card.

In the wet and windy City Calling Stadium, Derry City started the game the brighter of the two sides and in the opening minute showed their intent however Anthony Elding could not defy the offside trap.

The game’s first real chance arrived when the ball was played to Elding and he laid the ball off to Cillian Morrison but the Candystripes attacker took one touch too many allowing Paul Skinner to gather possession.

Derry continued to push for the contests opening goal, first Elding fired over the bar after some great counter-attacking play, before a Dean Jarvis free kick was flicked on by Elding to Morrison whose effort was easily gathered by Skinner in the midlanders goal.

Longford’s first real venture into the Derry box say Gary Doherty gather a cross from James Mulhall before a Mark Salmon free kick was easily cleared by the Candystripes defence.

The games controversial point arrived shortly after when Conor Powell was shown a straight red card, with referee Connolly believing his tackle was wild and reckless.

After the red card Derry continued to create countless chances, Barry McNamee firing wide from a short Timlin corner before Seamus Sharkey forced Skinner into conceding Derry’s fifth corner of the half.

Skinner again had to be quick off his goal line to stop Daniels from connecting with a Timlin ball into the box.

Into the second half, Derry continued to try to us their one man advantage by spreading the ball wide, with ten minutes played in the second half, what can only be described as a contender for miss of the season occurred, after a Timlin shot was pushed onto the crossbar by Skinner before the ball fell to Elding who appeared to slip on the ball inside the six yard box allowing the hosts to clear.

Longford’s best chance of snatching a goal appeared to be from placed balls. However Salmon could not pick out a teammate from 30 yards with Sharkey rising above all to clear Salmons delivery.

Derry continued to create chances but they could not find that killer ball, first McNamee tried to pick out a well-marked Elding instead of playing the easy pass out to the winger, before Timlin failed to find a teammate from a free kick.

The hosts last chance of the game arrived from another Salmon free kick when his delivery first hit the wall before the Longford Town captain then manage to fire the rebound over the bar.

Inside the last ten minutes the visitors continued to push for the goal that would send them back to Derry with all three points, however they could not force a save from Skinner in the Longford goal.

In the next round of games Derry City host Galway United in the Brandywell on Friday evening, while Longford Town will again be at the City Calling Stadium when they host league leaders Dundalk next Saturday evening.

Longford Town: Paul Skinner; Mark Rossiter, James Mulhall (Rhys Gorman 49), Pat Flynn, Conor Powell; Ayman Ben Mohamed (Kaleem Simon 82), Mark Salmon, Stephen Rice, Kevin O’Connor; David O’Sullivan (Martin Deady 22), Gary Shaw.
Subs not used: Daniel Henderson (gk), Thomas Morris, William Tyrrell, Lorcan Shannon.

Booked: Rice (29).
Sent Off: Powell (20).

Derry City: Gerard Doherty, Seamus Sharkey, Shane McEleney, Dean Jarvis (Nathan Boyle 85), Aaron Barry; Barry McNamee, Joshua Daniels (Ryan Curran 67), Seanan Clucas (Philip Lowery 56), Mark Timlin; Cillian Morrison, Anthony Elding.
Subs not used: Shaun Patton (gk), Shaun Kelly, Sean Houston, Ronan Curtis.

Booked: Lowery (60), S. McEleney (69).

Referee: Ben Connolly

Attendance: 1,200 (estimate)

Extratime Man of the Match: Mark Timlin (Derry City)