Crucial goals a key factor as Antrim overcome Longford

Antrim . . . 4-10    Longford . . . 1-8 

Longford suffered a third consecutive defeat in Division 4 of the Lidl Ladies Football National League in a difficult task against unbeaten Antrim on Sunday last. 

Crucial goals proved to be a key factor in the clash at the Antrim GAA Centre of Excellence and the midlanders must now win their remaining fixtures away to Leitrim (Sunday March 2) and away to Wicklow (Sunday March 9) to keep alive their outside chance of reaching the semi-finals.

While Longford (minus the injured Niamh Brady) were unlucky to be trailing by 1-4 to 0-3 at the break with Antrim raising the green flag in the 30th minute, the home county made good use of the wind advantage in the second half in adding another 3-4 to their tally.

Lauren McGuire scored a consolation goal late in the game from a penalty and Longford’s best player was Katie Crawford who registered three points. 

Leading at the end of a scrappy first half, Antrim moved up a couple of gears on the changeover when backed by the strong breeze and three well taken goals, two of them by Theresa Mellon and the other from Anna Mulholland, saw them pull away to win convincingly in the end.
Antrim started strongly with two early points from Devlin and Mulholland and it looked like they were totally in charge but they missed a succession of easy scoring chances.
Longford gradually began to settle to enjoy a dominant spell and drew level with points from centre-half forward Katie Crawford in the 7th and 13th minutes.
With a bit of luck they could have had a good few more scores, hitting the woodwork on four occasions in the first half.
Antrim did edge ahead with another point and that was all that separated the sides until Lara Dahunsi was on the end of a good move to palm the ball to the net to give her team a 1-4 to 0-3 lead at the interval.
With the wind at their backs in the second half, Antrim began to take control. Two points from Maria O’Neill, in reply to one from Crawford for Longford, was followed by a superbly taken goal from a narrow angle by Mellon which was a significant score.
Points followed from Bronagh Devlin and Dahunsi before Mellon got in again to fire home another left footed score and it was clear the victory was going the way of Antrim.
Anna Mulholland grabbed her team’s fourth goal as the game entered the last quarter and the Antrim management avail of the opportunity to bring on several substitutes.
To their credit Longford kept battling to the bitter end and scored a late goal from a penalty converted by corner forward Lauren McGuire.
Longford finished the game with 14 players following a yellow card for Fumni Talabi in the 59th minute.

 ANTRIM: Aine Devlin; Niamh Mcintosh, Meave Blaney, Carla McKenna; Sarah O’Neill, Ciara Brown, Orla Ní Corra; Aoife Kelly, Ana Mulholland; Theresa Mellon, Lara Dahunsi, Laura Agnew; Bronagh Devlin, Nicole Jones, Maria O’Neill.

Subs:- Aine Lynch and Blaithin Nic Cathail for Nicole Jones and Laura Agnew; Emily Kearns for Orla Ní Corra; Olivia Todd, Aoife Turley and Luisne Adams for Bronagh Devlin, Sarah O’Neill and Ana Mulholland; Gemma McGrearty and Aine Kelly for Meave Blaney and Carla McKenna. 

LONGFORD: Riane McGrath; Emily Reilly, Emma Bleakley, Leanne Keegan; Caoimhe McCormack Eimear O’Brien, Ella Duggan; Shauna Hagan, Fumni Talabi; Katelyn McKeon, Katie Crawford (0-3), Ella O’Reilly (0-1); Kamille Burke (0-1), Aisling Cosgrove, Lauren McGuire (1-3, goal from penalty). 

Subs:- Ailbhe Brady for Leanne Keegan; Elena O’ Reilly and Naoise Hourican for Katelyn McKeon and Kamille Burke.