Longford Town 3 - 0 Mervue United

• Terry Flaherty
• Sun, Jul 19 2009


Longford Town inflicted a fifth successive league defeat on Mervue Utd in their First Division game at Flancare Park on Saturday night. Longford were only recording their third win of the season while Mervue really look like a team in free-fall at the moment conceding another three times and a total of 22 in their last five games.

Longford got off to a flying start as they opened the scoring on just 24 seconds as Adrian Murphy applied the headed finish to a Jason McCartney left wing cross for a dream start for Gareth Cronin’s side. Cronin had look for a vast improvement from his Longford side before the game and he certainly got that in the first half as his side scored three times to effectively put this game to bed.

Mervue’s defensive woe’s continued on 13 minutes as McCartney headed home his third goal in four games from a Michael Foley corner for the home side’s second to make it 2-0 and it was looking like another long night for Johnny Glynn’s team. Former Galway Utd striker Derek Glynn then got in on the act as he added the third on the half hour mark as he flicked home a Foley free-kick at the near post to treble Longford’s lead.

The nearest Mervue came to scoring in the first period was a Dave Goldbey free-kick which looked goal bound until it was deflected away by a Longford defender for a corner kick to leave it 3-0 at the break.

Whatever Johnny Glynn said to his charges at half time maybe should have been drilled into them before the game, as they looked a different side after the break. Mervue improved no end and began to enjoy the majority of possession as they looked to try and get back into a game that was lost in that opening half hour. The front two of Goldbey and youth player, Pat Hoban, were looking a lot livelier and were unlucky to be ruled offside on a number of occasions as they looked to break on Danny O’Leary’s goal.

Mervue’s best chance of reducing the deficit fell to defender Eric Browne after he got on the end of a cross on the left hand side of the penalty box but he skied his effort over the crossbar. Rory Gaffney also broke through on goal but O’Leary won the battle in the one on one when he saved from the winger. Longford rarely threaten in the second half, as they were content to sit back and soak up the pressure and protect their 3-0 lead, which they did quite comfortably in the end.

This vital win for Longford closes the gap to just three points between the two teams as they move onto 12 points but remain in eleventh position. Mervue badly need to stop this recent run of very poor results and it doesn’t get any easier for them as next up is an away trip to second place UCD next Friday night. Longford’s next game is just as tough, as they face an away trip to the Morton Stadium to face third placed Sporting Fingal but at least they will go there in a more confident mood after collecting all three points tonight.

Longford Town: Danny O’Leary, Tom King, Kevin Cronin (Neill McKenna), Brian McCarthy, Stephen Gough, Carmine Russo, Jason McCartney (Gary Curran), Michael Foley, Derek Glynn, Derek McKenna (Liam Joyce), Adrian Murphy
Subs not Used; Phillip Coffey, Brian Murtagh.

Mervue United: Eoin Martin, Nigel Keady, Mark Ludden, Nicky Curran, Eric Browne, Damien O’Rourke, Rory Gaffney (Kevin Barrett, 80), Mixie Harty, David Goldbey, Pat Hoban, Mike Tierney (Kevin Crehan, 75).
Subs not used; Gary Traynor, Alex Lee, Martin Conneely.

Man of the Match: Michael Foley (Longford) Set up two of the home sides first half goals and ran the midfield.