Mervue United U19 4 - 1 Longford Town U19
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On Sunday last the Longford Town U19’s travelled to Galway for their third league encounter of the season with Mervue Utd. They went into this game after completing a hectic Christmas break that saw them win two friendly’s against local side Ballymahon and narrowly loose one nil to the top team in the U19 Northern Division, Sligo Rovers.
As the game kicked off there seemed to be a new found confidence in the young Town side and as they attempted to open their account for the new year they were unlucky not to open the scoring inside the first five minutes when centre half Brian McNamara headed just over from his name sake Kieran’s free kick from the right.
The next attack of note fell to Boni Odomene when he and winger Ryan Carberry played a nice one two on the edge of the box before Carberry crossed for Odomene who’s header was brilliantly pushed onto the crossbar by the Mervue keeper, James Healy. It came back out only to be cleared to safety by the alert defenders. Minutes later Mervue’s Ryan Manning managed to round Town right back Sean Duarte and somehow found the net from a tight angle to open the scoring.
From the kick-off Mervue gave away a free kick that was headed goal ward by Odomene but it crashed back off the crossbar to find Brian McNamara who controlled the ball and volleyed home only for the referee to disallow the equaliser for an alleged handball.
From this point on Mervue began to get a foot hold on the game and put pressure on the Longford defence and they stretched their lead on 31 minutes when the linesman adjudged that Town keeper David McNamara handled the ball outside the box. From the resulting free kick the Mervue's Dillon Murphy slotted the ball home past the flat footed McNamara.
With ten minutes remaining in the half Town winger Michael James weaved his way into the Mervue box and put a great shot past Healy in the home goal to bring his side back into the game. Disaster struck for the visitors on 40 minutes, however, when they failed to clear the ball from their box and Ryan Manning took full advantage to poke the ball past McNamara fo his second goal of the game. The 3-1 half time score line was harsh on Longford who had the majority of the play in the half.
The start of the second half was similar to the first and Town striker Odomene found himself one on one with Mervue keeper Healy early on only to be flagged for offside. On 55 minutes Carberry was unlucky to see his shot hit the side netting and five minutes later James had a shot that went just wide of the Mervue upright.
The game became a battle in midfield as Mervue tried to hold what they had and Longford struggled to break down the home side’s two banks of four. On 78 minutes Mervue were awarded a free kick twenty yards from goal andManning struck a wonderful shot over the wall and past McNamara to bag his hattrick and compound a horrible day for the visitors.
Next up for Longford Town is another game against Galway opposition this time in the form of GUST. This game will be played either Wednesday or Saturday with the venue and time to be confirmed.
Longford Town: David McNamara, Sean Duarte, Brian McNamara, Steven Boateng, Cormac Kennedy, Aaron Brilly(c), Michael James, Ryan Carberry (Dean Cosgrave 75), Kieran McNamara (Paul Kennedy 55), Alex Kenny (Padraig Gallagher 80), Boni Odomene.
Mervue United: James Healy; Eric Neary, Evan Browne, Padraig Keane, Shane McNamara; Dillon Murphy (Moise Asogba 85), Richard Fahy (c), Cathal O'Regan, Eoghan Walsh (Thomas Gleeson 82); Ryan Manning, Aiden O’Sullivan (Evan Boyce 81).
