Longford SFC: Abbeylara battle back to beat Slashers in close encounter

Abbeylara . . . 0-11   Longford Slashers . . . 1-7

Abbeylara scored a very important win in their quest to qualify for the Senior Football Championship quarter-finals in battling back to beat Longford Slashers in a close encounter at C&D Devine Park in Edgeworthstown on Saturday evening last.  

Just a solitary point separated the sides in the finish with Frankie Dolan’s charges showing a lot of character in recovering from the concession of a goal midway through the second half.

Defender Ronan Sheahan (snr) surged forward to create the opportunity for Gerard Flynn to flick the ball to the net in the 43rd minute and that left Slashers leading by 1-6 to 0-7.

A brace of points from Darragh O’Connell (the second a cracking strike) provided the inspiration for this promising spell which also yielded a point from a Robbie Clarke free.

Abbeylara held a slender 0-5 to 0-3 advantage at the break and stayed in front with a point apiece from Bryan Masterson and Bernard Crawford before the goal from Gerard Flynn,

Prominent centre-half-back Masterson was denied a goal with less than a minute gone on the changeover following a fine point-blank save by the Slashers keeper Eoin McGuinness but regained the upper hand in the final quarter.

Three points from the impressive Reece Reilly left the sides all square with the equally effective Darragh O’Connell firing over his third score for Slashers in the 56th minute but Abbeylara came out on top thanks to a free converted by Robbie Smyth late in the game.    

The pressure is now firmly on Slashers in the fierce battle to make it through to the last eight with Tommy Donohoe’s charges facing a make or break clash against Carrickedmond at McGann Park in Kenagh this Friday night.
Abbeylara, on the other hand, will be virtually certain of making further progress if they can defeat fellow table toppers Dromard at McGee Park in Aughnacliffe on Sunday evening.
Aided by the wind, Abbey built up a 0-5 to 0-2 lead against Slashers with three of their points (two frees) coming from Robbie Smyth while Jason Kelly and Cathal Gilligan were also on target.
Slashers had made a bright start with a brace of scores through Sean Morgan and Gerard Flynn (mark), the latter shooting over the bar in the 9th minute, but the sky-blues had to wait until the 30th minute for their next point from a well struck ‘45 converted by their keeper Eoin McGuinness.
It was an extremely tight affair in the second half with Slashers adding another 1-4 to their tally and were looking good when the goal materialised.
But they failed to build on that vital score as Abbeylara, shooting a total of six points on the changeover, came storming back to emerge victorious by the minimum of margins which was mainly due to the major impact made by Reece Reilly.   

ABBEYLARA: Gavin Kelly; Michael McHugh, PJ Masterson, Colm P Smyth; Cian Brady, Bryan Masterson (0-1), Mel Brady; Fergal Battrim, Ciaran Scanlon; Reece Reilly (0-3), Jason Kelly (0-1), Russell Brady; Robbie Smyth (0-4, 3 frees), Cathal Gilligan (0-1), Bernard Crawford (0-1).

Subs:- Padraig Berry for M Brady (injured, 49 mins); Kieran Mulvihill for B Crawford (54 mins).

LONGFORD SLASHERS: Eoin McGuinness (0-1, ‘45); Sean Morgan (0-1), Ronan Sheahan (snr), Shane O’Connell; Gerard Flynn (1-1, point from mark), Conor Clarke, Peter Lynn; Andy Dalton, Cian McGuinness; Cian O Nuallain, Ronan Sheahan, Robbie Clarke (0-1, free); Robbie O’Connell, Tadhg McNevin, Darragh O’Connell (0-3).

Subs:- Sean Clarke for R Clarke (50 mins); Sean Tiernan for T McNevin (54 mins).

Referee: Tony Gaffney (Mostrim).