Longford Town 1 - 3 Monaghan United

Late goals from Shane Grimes and Fabio O’Brien sealed a win for Monaghan United at Flancare Park on Saturday night after Longford had earned an unlikely equaliser despite their having been reduced to nine men.

This was a game that took a while to come to life with neither team creating anything in the way of a decent chance until the 25th minute when a Fabio O’Brien penalty opened the scoring for Monaghan United.

O’Brien took receipt of the ball about ten yards from goal and showed excellent control to nudge the ball between two defenders and place himself in front of goal with only the ‘keeper to beat. He was only denied a shot on goal by full back Graham Dowling who tangled himself up in the veteran’s legs and brought him down.

Referee Phil Caschera was right to award the penalty that O’Brien took himself and buried beyond Paul Hunt. But the subsequent dismissal of Dowling felt a little harsh. Longford boss withdrew Lee Roche in response, sending on Niall O’Reilly to restore his complement of four defenders.

In truth Monaghan deserved their lead. They had played the better football before the goal and continued to do so afterwards. Longford battled on despite being a man and a goal down but strike partners Don Cowan and Austin Skelly received little in the way attacking ball.

Cowan picked up a loose ball on 34 minutes and beat Aidan Collins before Philip Byrne deflected his shot away for a corner that Chris Deans met firmly at the back post. But his header lacked accuracy and slipped several yards wide, as close as the home side came to an equaliser before the half time whistle.

The second half was really an exercise in Monaghan controlling the pace of the game and ensuring that Longford had as little of the ball as possible. They played neat passing football without ever threatening their superiority with reckless ambition.

As a result little of note happened for most of the second 45 minutes, although there were a series of spicy challenges around the 60 minute mark that raised the temperature slightly. For all their dominance Monaghan created little although Ryan Brennan’s floated cross was deftly touched to O’Brien on 68 minutes, forcing Hunt into a well timed block.

On 75 minutes any hope of a Longford equaliser seemed to have disappeared when Keith Gillespie led with the elbow on Eric Foley and was deservedly sent off. But, remarkably, with nine minutes left Don Cowan battled his way through two challenges on the edge of the visitor’s box before thrashing the ball past Sava and into the bottom left hand corner of the net.

If Monaghan were surprised by that they didn’t allow it to show. They simply stepped on the gas and re-took the initiative. With just two minutes left on the clock a series of controlled passes across the box found defender Shane Grimes in space and he fired a low shot into the far corner to restore Monaghan’s lead.

Then, for good measure, Fabio O’Brien lashed in a third from a pull back by Jason Marks and that, as they say, was that.

Longford Town: Paul Hunt; Graham Dowling, Chris Deans, Des Hope, Gary Cronin; Keith Gillespie, Jacques Morley (Cathal Brady, 62), Mark Salmon, Lee Roche (Niall O’Reilly, 27); Don Cowan, Austin Skelly (Dan Reilly, 67).
Subs not used: Stephen Conlon, Paddy Collins, Craig Walsh, Thomas Hyland.

Bookings: Hope (53).
Sendings Off: Dowling (24), Gillespie (75).

Monaghan United: Gabriel Sava; Paul Whelan (Alan Byrne, 77), Philip Byrne, Aidan Collins, Shane Grimes; John Reilly, Eric Foley, Don Tierney (Jason Marks, 65), Ryan Brennan; Sean Brennan, Declan O’Brien.
Subs not used: Jake Rossiter, Michael Isichei, Shane Fitzgerald.

Bookings: Foley (61).
Sendings Off: None.

extratime.ie Man of the Match: Don Cowan.
Referee: Phil Caschera.
Attendance: 300 (estimate).