Longford Town 2 - 1 Mervue United

• Terry Flaherty
• Mon, Mar 21 2011


Longford Town snatched all three points two minutes into injury time with a bizarre winning goal, when a share of the spoils looked on the cards following a controversial opening goal for the visitors that was cancelled out by an own goal.

One wonders why RTE never send MNS camera’s to First Division games as this game threw up three strange goals which would surely have entertained any football fan. For the 250 or so hardy souls that turned up in Flancare Park, they would have hardly noticed the speed camera van placed outside the ground on the way home, as they had too much to discuss regarding all three goals.

A scrappy opening quarter played in driving rain saw Chris Deans head a Jacques Morley right wing corner just wide on nine minutes. At the other end Eric Browne missed a free header as he missed the target after home keeper Stephen Conlon failed to clear Mark Ludden corner ten minutes later.

Mark Salmon found himself free in the visitors box after 26 minutes but saw his well struck strike push away by the alert Ger Hanley with Craig Walsh completely miss-hitting the loose ball as the chance was lost. Full back Graham Dowling then prevented a certain goal as he threw himself in the way of a Ludden effort in front of goal on 33 minutes.

Two minutes later and we had our first talking point. Longford failed to clear the ball and with Conlon caught out of position the ball dropped to Mike Tierney and his expertly struck half volley towards an empty goal struck the underside of the crossbar before bouncing downwards and clear of the goal. To everyone’s amazement the assistant referee on the far side flagged for a goal, the photo finish camera on the Cheltenham winning post would have come in handy here, but to the dismay of the home following the goal was awarded.

Four minutes later and Tierney had the ball in the net again as he headed home Ludden’s left wing cross only for the assistant to flag for offside as the visitors finished the half on top.

Longford should have been level eight minutes after the restart as Salmon played a lovely ball over the Mervue defence to release sub Aiden Roche into the box, but with just Hanley to beat he screwed his shot badly wide. Molloy fired just past the post following a good turn in the Longford box as Mervue looked to double their lead.

Salmon had a shot blocked by Browne as he looked to shoot on 65 minutes, while Conlon saved well pushing away another on target Molloy effort two minutes later. Conlon came to Longford’s rescue again on 75 minutes when Crehan released Tierney through on goal but the home keeper got down well to save the Mervue captain’s strike.

Just as it looked like Johnny Glynn’s side were going to add to their first half lead, the home side found themselves level two minutes later. A Jacques Morley corner kick from the right was headed into his own net at the near post by the unfortunate Browne as he registered a second own goal in successive games.

A well struck low strike from sub Lee Roche was brilliantly turned around the post for a corner by Hanley with two minutes remaining as Longford finished the game in search of a winner. That winner arrived in the 92nd minute as captain Deans punted a long ball forward into the visitors box, which Browne left for Hanley to claim but the keeper misjudged the flight of the ball and watched in horror as it bounced in the box before flying over his head an into the net for an unbelievable and dramatic winner.

If the cameras were at this game, all three goals would surely be contenders for an edition of the BBC’s Question of Sport “What happen next?”, but Tony Cousin’s side won’t care about that as they collected all three important points.

Longford Town: Stephen Conlon; Graham Dowling (Niall O’Reilly ‘45), Mike Lee, Des Hope, Chris Deans; Thomas Hyland, Cathal Brady (Aidan Roche ‘46), Mark Salmon, Craig Walsh (Lee Roche ’69), Jacques Morley; Don Cowan.
Subs not Used: Paddy Collins, Peter Sczcerbowski, Jason Oladele, Paul Hunt (GK).

Bookings: None.

Mervue United: Ger Hanley; Nicky Curran, James Casserely, Eric Browne, Martin Conneely; Mark Ludden, Kevin Crehan, Mike Tierney (Barry McEntee ’89), Noel Varley; Jason Molloy (Peter Dravins ’90), David Goldbey.
Subs not used: Mike Elwood, Darren Kelly, Alex Lee, Michael Collins, TJ Forde.

Bookings: Jason Molloy (‘54), David Golbey (’81), Noel Varley (’89).

Referee: Conor Fitzgerald (Dublin).
Attendance: 250 approx.
Extratime.ie Man of the Match: Mark Salmon (Longford Town).