Wexford Youths 2 - 2 Longford Town

• Conor Meagher
• Sun, Jun 14 2009


Flancare Park will host the replay of this game next week after a 93rd minute equaliser from Gavin Doyle drew the tie in dramatic circumstances. Longford centre half and Man of the Match Brian McCarthy had provided two assists for Curran and Murphy after an hour and 75 minutes respectively. However, Gavin Doyle was the Wexford hero after he scored a 81st minute penalty on the rebound and lashed home a top corner volley with seconds left in added time to send the tie to a replay.

A dour first half saw little in the way of goal chances as both teams cancelled each other out. Yellow cards for Jinks and Lynch were matched by one for O’Loughlin as some late challenges throughout the half went with the messy display in general. Longford’s set piece tactic of piling everyone in on the keeper did nothing on three occasions as reserve keeper Doyle was more than capable of the pressure – duly aided by centre-half David Breen. Jinks and Sinnott were both conspicuous from their team mates in trying to haul the game into life a couple of times, Sinnott setting Sheahan away down the right with one ball only for the striker to drill his cross off McCarthy with Gavin Doyle waiting at the back post. Half time came with the only memory of any actual shots on goal being from two Shane Dempsey speculative efforts inside the first ten minutes – the midfielder holding his place well in place of the suspended Patsey Malone along side Conor Sinnott.

The second half started much the same as the first and only sprang into life on the hour mark as McCarthy rose the highest to knock down for Gary Curran to score from the edge of the box. Wexford’s own towering centre half David Breen had been marking McCarthy and was the Youth’s biggest threat after the goal seeing a header off the line and a shot saved, both in the 15 minutes after the goal. McCarthy was to have the next impact though as he got up over Breen again and provided sub Adrian Murphy with a tap in off keeper Doyle and the post. The Youths came back through a Gavin Doyle penalty after 81 minutes as a Breen shot in the box was handled by Liam Lynch after a frantic few minutes in the Longford box. Adrian Murphy almost made it three after just being booked for not retreating from a free on 86 minutes. The striker broke down the left and cut inside only to see Doyle save his shot, a minute later he gathered his header from a McCartney cross. Gavin Doyle had the last say deep into added time though when he collected a King header out from a Dempsey cross and volleyed into the top corner to equalise.

Wexford Team: 20 Pa Doyle; 7 Johnny Flynn O’Connor, 10 David Breen, 11 Paul Rossiter, 8 Gareth McCurtain (Vickers 76min), 13 Liam O’Loughlin (Yellow, 21min): 12 Conor Sinnott (Capt) (Yellow, 72min), 14 Shane Dempsey, 16 Ritchie Fitzgerald (Keohane, 59min); 17 Garry Sheahan, 15 Gavin Doyle.Subs: 18 Jimmy Keohane, 19 Tiernan Rossiter, 21 Shane Sinnott, 22 Martin Kehoe, 24 Robert Vickers, 25 Robert Dempsey, 1 Packie Holden.

Longford Team: 1 Anthony Fennelly; 2 Tom King, 3 Michael Lee, 4 Stephen Gough, 5 Brian McCarthy; 7 Gary Curran, 8 Carmine Russo, 6 Colm Jinks (Capt) (Yellow, 12min) (Kenny, 90min), 11 Jason McCarthy; 9 Derek Glynn (Murphy 66 (Yellow, 86min), 10 Liam Lynch (Yellow, 34min) Subs: 12 Ray Kenny, 14 Jim Sheridan, 18 Dean Clarke, 17 Darragh Concannon, 15 Adrian Murphy, 22 Shane O’Brien.

Ref: Anthony Buttimer.

Attendance: 500

Extratime.ie Man of the Match: Brian McCarthy, strong at the back throughout and won his set piece battle with Breen by setting up the two Longford goals.