Longford Town 2 - 1 Waterford United

Longford Town finally ended their winless streak with a deserved win over Waterford United on Saturday night and in doing so leapfrogged the Blues into 5th place in the table.

It was a much needed win for the Midlanders who had lost their last three games and hadn’t tasted victory since mid-July. They did take encouragement from their fine performance in the 3-2 defeat to Monaghan United last weekend and brought that display into this game.
 

The Blues were extremely poor in the first half but were a different proposition after the break and took the game to the Town but Tony Cousins’ side stood firm and held out for all three points.
 

Despite having several players out through injury the Town only had one change from the Monaghan game. Graham Dowling returned from injury in place of Des Hope who missed out through injury. Once again striker Austin Skelly was a surprise omission with Jean Biansumba preferred again as the lone striker.
 

Skelly was unlucky not to score after he was introduced in the second half. Both himself and the other Town substitute Daniel Purdy did well when they came on.
 

For Waterford they made two changes from the side that lost 3-1 to Cork City in the Munster derby. Paul Murphy and Adam McSherry returned to the side in place of Seamus Long and Gary Keane. They were completely over-ran in the first half but made a game of it in the second and made it a nervy final 10 minutes when Gary Dunphy pulled a goal back in the 80th minute.
 

The Town started the game brightly and it was no surprise that it was them that broke the deadlock in the 9th minute. Nifty winger Cathal Brady whipped in a pinpoint cross into the box and Thomas Crawley shot home from close range.

Four minutes later and the visitors had a chance to draw level. Adam McSherry got onto the end of Paul Phelan’s cross but his diving header just went inches over. That was their only chance of the first half.
 

The Town started to take a hold on proceedings but couldn’t add to that opening goal. On the half hour mark the Town doubled their advantage when Graham Dowling found the back of the net with a superb header from Keith Gillespie’s corner.

Whatever was said in the Waterford dressing-room at half-time worked and they started the second half with intent. Although they didn’t create many goalscoring chances they saw more of the ball in the opening minutes than they had in the whole of the first half.
 

Gary Dunphy had a glorious chance to pull a goal back for his side in the 63rd minute but his rasping shot from about 20 yards out was tipped over the bar by Town keeper Alvin Rouse. Dunphy tried his luck again minutes later but this time his effort was well wide.
 

For all their possession the Town failed to test Blues keeper Kevin Burns. In the 72nd minute Paul Murphy’s fine strike was well saved by Rouse. Town had a chance to kill of the Blues challenge in the 76th minute but Skelly was just inches away from connecting with Daniel Purdy’s right-wing cross.
 

Four minutes later and Waterford’s pressure paid off when Dunphy headed home Paul Walsh’s cross. Just after Purdy had a chance to restore the Town’s two goal advantage but Burns saved his free-kick.

As the clock ticked down the Town played a little too deep and invited Waterford onto them but they were unable to create any decent scoring chances. Right at the end the Town were reduced to 10 men when Gillespie was sent off for a second yellow. He was harshly shown a yellow for not taking a free quick enough but his reaction (applauding the decision) gave the referee no other option but to show a second yellow and a red. It was the only sour note for Longford on a fine night’s work.


Longford Town: Alvin Rouse, Graham Dowling, Jeff Flood, Thomas Hyland, Gary Cronin, Cathal Brady, Keith Gillespie, James O’Brien (Daniel Purdy 71), Mark Salmon, Thomas Crawley, Jean Biansumba (Austin Skelly 61).
Subs: Craig Walsh, Sean Skelly, Alan McGreal, Noel Fallon, Dara Satelle.
Yellow card: Mark Salmon 58
Red card: Keith Gillespie 93
 

Waterford Utd: Kevin Burns, Paul Carey (Seamus Long 38), Michael Coady, David Breen, Kenny Browne, Paul Walsh, Paul Phelan (Dwayne Wilson 86), Gary Dunphy, Adam McSherry, Willie John Kiely (Gary Keane 72), Paul Murphy.
Subs: Brian Nolan, Adam Heaslip, Conor Sinnott, Sean Barron.
 

Referee: Keith Callanan (Cork)
extratime.ie man of the match: Cathal Brady (Longford Town)