Winless Longford Town suffer another defeat as Wexford FC come out on top

Longford Town . . . 1   Wexford FC . . . 2 

With caretaker manager Wayne Groves in charge for a third fixture, Longford Town were hoping for a change of fortune but it failed to materialise against Wexford FC at Bishopsgate on Saturday night last.   

Despite a second half goal from Luke Wade Slater, a Mikey Rowe first half double secured all three points for the visitors as winless Longford remain rooted at the bottom of the First Division table. 

Wexford FC took the lead on twenty-three minutes when Cian O’Malley’s throw-in from the right bobbled inside the Town box and Ethan Boyle hooked the ball forward into the path of Rowe who slotted the ball to the back of the Longford net from close range.

On the half hour mark, a twenty-five-yard effort from Mark Hanratty just whistled past the Town post.

Wexford almost doubled their advantage two minutes later when a Kian Corbally long range pass resulted in striker Thomas Oluwa brilliantly turning Town defender Shane Elworthy, holding off the challenge of Luke Wade Slater only to fire his rising shot against the Longford crossbar.

The visitors went two up on thirty-five minutes. A throw-in from the right from Reece Webb picked out Luka Lovic and he played the ball back to Webb who quickly played a one-two with Lovic before Webb’s cross was fired home by Rowe with the aid of a deflection off the unfortunate Wade Slater.

Wexford nearly scored a third on fifty-four minutes when a nicely worked corner resulted in a mistake by Town substitute Bastien Hery which allowed Hanratty’s pass to find O’Malley but his shot was brilliantly saved by the home keeper Jack Brady.

The home side got back into the contest on fifty-six minutes when Hery’s ball was headed home by Wade Slater.  

And Longford came close to levelling matters on sixty-six minutes but Wixted’s cross was headed narrowly over the bar by Shane Elworthy.

The home side should have equalised in the 70th minute when a Hery ball into the box caused a mix-up between Wexford keeper Owen Mason and defenders Ben Lynch and Cian O’Malley.

That left the Town striker Jordan Adeyemo with an open goal but somehow he fired his effort wide when a goal seemed certain. 

The Town were reduced to ten men in the 86th minute when defender Dean O’Shea was sent-off for a second yellow card offence after he had taken down Rowe on the edge of the  box.

The Wexford matchwinner Rowe took the free-kick but Town keeper Brady parried the effort with the ball rebounding wide off Lovic.

Longford were unable to engineer the opportunity of a late, late equaliser in suffering their seventh defeat in the league this season in their failure to pick up a point at Bishopsgate so far this season.

There was some good news with the return of Viktor Serdeniuk, who was brought on at the start of the second half against Wexford after his recovery from a lengthy injury absence.  

Next up for the Town is a difficult away fixture against UCD this Friday night (kick-off 7.45pm), followed by the clash against Kerry FC at Bishopsgate on the Bank Holiday Monday (kick-off 5pm).   

LONGFORD TOWN (4-1-3-2): Jack Brady, Luke Wade Slater, Shane Elworthy, Dean O’Shea, Kyle O’Connor, Jordan Tallon, Mohammed Boudiaf, Samuel Clarke, Ross Fay, Jordan Adeyemo, Francis Campbell.

Subs:- Viktor Serdeniuk for Tallon, Adam Wixted for Boudiaf, Conor Crowley for Clarke, Bastien Hery for Campbell (all half-time); Emmanuel James for Fay (90 mins).

WEXFORD FC (4-3-3): Mason, Webb, O’Malley, Lynch, Crawford, Boyle, Corbally, Lovic, Rowe, Oluwa, Hanratty.

Subs:- Levingston for Hanratty (72 mins); Curtis for Oluwa (87 mins); Curtis for Oluwa (87 mins).

Referee: Daniel Murphy.

SSE Airtricity League First Division

Friday 3 May

UCD v Longford Town
Belfield Bowl
Kick-Off 7.45pm

Bank Holiday Monday 6 May

Longford Town v Kerry FC

Bishopsgate
Kick-Off 5pm