Conor Drinan on the double as Cork City conquer Longford Town

Cork City . . . 2   Longford Town . . . 0

The difficult journey on the road down south for Longford Town continued at Turner’s Cross on Friday night last and ended in defeat against the table toppers Cork City with Conor Drinan scoring the crucial goals in the closing stages of the first half. 

A string of excellent saves by Jack Brady kept the injury-hit midlanders in contention during the course of the match that was watched by the official attendance of 1,820 but the home side eventually came out on top to collect three more points on their march to the First Division title.

After making the trips to the Markets Field (1-0 loss against Treaty United), Ferrycarrig Park (2-2 draw against Wexford FC) in the space of a few short days, it all became too much for the Longford part-timers despite a determined first half display at Turner’s Cross.

Cork City had to wait until the 38th minute to break the deadlock with a Drinan header finding the back of the net after Cian Bargary created the opportunity. 

Three minutes later Longford were punished for another mistake when the promising 19-year-old Harvey Skieters set up Drinan for a well-taken second goal and there was no way back for the bottom of the table underdogs.       

This match, changed to Bishopsgate in April when Turner’s Cross was closed for remedial works, was always going to be a real uphill battle for much understrength Longford.

The visitors did enjoy some fine passing moves for a spell without the chance of scoring as Jordan Adeyemo was caught offside with their best chance in the first half. 

The brilliance of Jack Brady was keeping Longford in the game as the saves kept coming with the defence under a lot of pressure. 

After Darragh Crowley somehow missed an open goal, Cork finally scored courtesy of the Drinan header and the second materialised soon after to leave Longford with an impossible task against the strongest team in the First Division. 

It could have got worse for the Town with keeper Brady coming to the rescue again in preventing an own goal after a cross from Jack Doherty was deflected in the direction of the net by the unfortunate Conor Crowley with 62 minutes gone on the clock.

That was the way it remained until the finish and Longford Town are badly in need of some points in their frustrating efforts to evade the bottom spot.

Hopefully their luck will change in the last game before the summer break against fellow strugglers Kerry FC at Mounthawk Park in Tralee this Thursday night, kick-off 7.45pm.   

CORK CITY: B Wade; D Crowley, C Coleman, C Lyons, E McLaughlin; G Bolger (B Coffey 73 mins), S Murray; C Bargary (J Fitzpatrick 85 mins), J Doherty, C Drinan (M Dijksteel 64 mins); H Skieters (C Murphy 64 mins).

LONGFORD TOWN: Jack Brady; Mohammed Boudiaf, Jordan Tallon, Dean O’Shea, Kyle O’Connor; Francis Campbell (Vasyl Tropanets 73 mins), Conor Crowley, Bastien Hery (Emmanuel James 73 mins), Karl Chambers, Guilherme Rego Priosti (Callum Bonner 73 mins); Jordan Adeyemo.

Referee: D Carolan.