Longford minors come storming back to snatch a draw against Kildare

Longford . . . 0-14      Kildare . . . 2-8 

Showing a lot of the same courage that landed the Leinster minor championship title last year, resilient Longford came storming back to snatch a draw against Kildare in the difficult wet and windy conditions at Glennon Brothers Pearse Park on Saturday last.
Boosted by a couple of gift goals in the first half through Rory Thompson and Hugh Martin, the visitors came from five points down to lead by 2-6 to 0-8 at the break and appeared to be on course for their expected win when midfielder Ollie Deller fired over a cracking two-pointer (play) with eight minutes gone on the changeover.
But a succession of missed chances cost Kildare dearly as they failed to register another score during the remainder of the Round 1 clash and slowly but surely the gap was closed with a brilliantly struck ‘45’ from the boot of substitute keeper Ray McNally against the wind in the 56th minute giving Longford the belief to avoid defeat with Cormac Mulligan a driving force around the midfield area.
A brace of stoppage time frees converted by key forwards Brendan Martin-Burns (the influential half-time replacement) and chief marksman Troy Tiernan (who registered a total of six points) earned the gutsy home side a deserved draw and next up in the group stage (top 3 to qualify) are Westmeath (away) on Thursday April 10th with Meath also in this very tough section.
Wind assisted Longford dominated the first quarter of the contest against Kildare to establish an impressive 0-5 to 0-0 advantage with the points coming from James Flynn (free and play), captain Billy Maguire (a tremendous effort from the centre-half-back), Liam Greene and Troy Tiernan (free).
That was really putting it up to the hot favourites Kildare but they were thrown a lifeline when a speculative shot from full-forward Rory Thomspon dipped over the head of the starting Longford keeper Conan Rawle into the roof of the net for the lilywhites first score in the 14th minute.
Rawle came to the rescue when producing a fine point-blank save to deny Kildare midfielder Calum Keaveny and then came a disputed Longford point from Troy Tiernan which was originally waved wide by the umpire but the Westmeath referee Enda Kelly reversed the decision.
The unchallenged Hugh Martin was given the time and space to flick the ball to the net for the second Kildare goal in the 18th minute and all of a sudden the sides were on level terms, 0-6 to 2-0.
Longford were rattled as they conceded three more scores in a row through Martin, Thompson and Cillian Long (free) and Kildare ended up four points in front at the break following another trio of scores (all frees) from Long and Thompson (2).
Joe Breslin’s charges kept in touch with a brace of points from the impressive corner-forward Troy Tiernan and after Brendan Martin-Burns converted a free at the start of the second half, a goal almost materialised for Longford as the ball was cleared off the line in a scramble.
Following the two-pointer from Ollie Deller, Kildare defender Niall McAndrew squandered a great chance of a killer third goal when he shot wide from close range and gutsy Longford just refused to accept defeat.
A point apiece from Tiernan (free) and Martin-Burns (play), three more points were scored late in the game to leave the teams all square in the end.

LONGFORD: Conan Rawle (Sean Connolly’s); Jack O’Farrell (Carrickedmond), Cathal Lynch (Clonguish), Alex Karytinos (Fr Manning Gaels); Padraig Mulligan (Dromard), Billy Maguire (Longford Slashers, captain, 0-1), Aidan Kelly (Cashel); Max Gallagher (Ardagh Moydow), Dylan Ledwith (Abbeylara); Diarmuid Breslin (Carrickedmond), James Flynn (Clonguish, 0-2, 1 free), Liam Greene (Mostrim, 0-1); Troy Tiernan (Grattans, 0-6, 3 frees), Cormac Mulligan (Dromard), Gavin Donohue (Killoe).

Subs:- Brendan Martin-Burns (Granard, 0-3, 2 frees) for J Flynn (half-time); Ray McNally (Longford Slashers, 0-1, ‘45) for C Rawle (half-time); Niall O’Donnell (Granard) for D Ledwith (49 mins); Patrick Lynch (Mullinalaghta) for G Donohue (55 mins); Robert Rowan (Kenagh) for D Breslin (59 mins).  

KILDARE: Jamie Wall; Dan Sargent, Niall McAndrew, Senan Gallagher; Sean Gleeson, Aran Martin, TJ Donoghue; Calum Keaveny, Ollie Deller (0-2, two-pointer); Rian Curran, Hugh Martin (1-1), Mark Travers; Cillian Long (0-2, frees), Rory Thompson (1-3, 2 frees), Charlie Doran.

Subs:- Aidan Maddock for C Keaveny (43 mins); Eoghan Lyons for H Martin (47 mins); JJ Reilly for TJ Donoghue (55 mins); Nathan Dunne for O Deller (60 mins); Turlough Donnelly for C Doran (stoppage time).

Referee: Enda Kelly (Westmeath).