- Stuart Connolly
- Sat, Sep 17 2016
Longford Town won only their second league match of the season against a Harps side who have now lost 7 consecutive games without scoring. The win stops a run of 5 defeats in a row for Matthews' side, with Keeper Ryan Coulter saving a Ruairi Keating penalty late on in the match.
Finn Harps boss Ollie Horgan made 4 changes to the side that lost 2-0 away to Champions Dundalk in their last fixture. Harps have lost their last 6 games without finding the net and boss Horgan will hope to stop his team's rotten run of form sooner rather than later.
Longford Manager Alan Matthews named an unchanged line-up after his sides home defeat to Bray in their last outing. Longford, on a similar run of form to tonight’s opponents, having lost their last 5 games consecutively and have not won since the opening round of fixtures.
McMonagle nearly gave Harps the best possible start inside the opening minute, but with only the keeper to beat he scuffed his shot into the Coulter's gloves.
Packie Mailey thought he had put the home side infront on the 12th minute but his driven shot hit the side netting.
Eddie Dsane had Longford's first shot of the match but his effort was well over the crossbar.
Kevin O'Connor gave the away side the lead somewhat against the run of play on the 17th minute, the midfielder went for a speculative lob from distance and his effort left Brush rooted to the ground.
Don Cowan nearly doubled the visitors lead within minutes but Brush used to feet well to keep his side in the game.
McGlynn almost put the visitors 2-0 up on the half hour mark with a well struck shot from close range but Brush was on hand to parry if over the bar.
An Adam Hanlon cross nearly brought Finn Harps level after his tantalizing ball rolled across the goalline but was well cleared before Curran could get a foot on it.
Finn Harps were thanking their lucky stars after Eddie Dsane missed a golden opportunity to give Longford some breathing space. The striker was one on one with Brush but dragged his shot well wide of the far post.
Ollie Horgan made an attacking change early in the second half bring on Striker Dace Scully for defender Packie Mailey.
Longford Town looked likely to add a second to the scoreline just shy of the hour mark and a clever run by Mulhall was abruptly stopped by Adam Hanlon who went into the referee's book.
Not long after Hanlon went into the book he was joined by Keith Cowan for a foul that went unseen by the referee but the fourth official made him aware of it after Longford were flagged offside.
Horgan made a like for like change after the hour mark bringing on Keating for Curran.
Eddie Dsane's performance included almost everything bar a goal, the striker seen a defensive clearance fall right at his toes but his first time shot from inside the 6-yard box just missed the post.
Matthews made an attacking change of his own with 15 minutes to go, bringing on David O'Sullivan for Peter McGlynn.
With 10 minutes to go Dave Scully was fouled, it looked to be inside the box on first glance but the referee awarded a free-kick, but after talking with the linesman on that side a penalty was given, which was subsequently saved by Coulter. The penalty was taken by Keating.
After the penalty miss Horgan made his last change of the match, bringing on Kevin McHugh in a bid for a late equalizer.
After an almighty goal mouth scramble with the ball cleared off the Longford line more than once, Coulter tipped the ball over the bar.
Harps had a couple of chances at the death but couldn’t find a way past Coulter in the away goal.
Harps have now gone approximately 675 minutes without scoring, if the abandoned game against Sligo Rovers is included in the overall tally of minutes.
Finn Harps: Richard Brush; Ciaran Coll, Keith Cowan, Packie Mailey(Dave Scully 51), Josh Mailey, Tommy McMonagle; Gareth Harkin, Sean Houston, Adam Hanlon, Ethan Boyle(Kevin McHugh 82); Ryan Curran(Ruairi Keating 64)
Subs not used: Ciaran Gallagher, Michael Funston, Tony McNamee, Barry Molloy.
Booked: Adam Hanlon (59), Keith Cowan (62)
Longford Town: Ryan Coulter; Jamie Mulhall, Conor Powell, Yann M'Vita, Pat Flynn; Kealon Dillon, Peter McGlynn(David O'Sullivan 76), Philip Gannon, Kevin O'Connor; Eddie Dsane, Don Cowan(Rhys Gorman 90+1)
Subs not used: Paul Skinner, Mark Hughes, Tristan Noack-Hoffman, Kalem Simon, Gaius Makouta.
Booked: Eddie Dsane (90+2)
Referee: Ray Matthews
Attendance: 675 (estimate)
ExtraTime.ie Man of the Match: Eddie Dsane (Longford Town)
