No joy for Longford Town in Tralee as Kerry FC come out on top

From the high of taking on the might of Shamrock Rovers in the FAI Cup and almost springing a shock at Tallaght Stadium the previous weekend came the reality check for Longford Town of losing to Kerry FC in the Airtricity League First Division.

Kerry FC . . . 1  Longford Town . . . 0

There was no joy for the midlanders at Mounthawk Park in Tralee on Friday night last as the improving home side, fresh from their fine achievement of reaching the Cup quarter-finals, collected all three points with Cian Brosnan scoring a cracking winning goal in the 53rd minute.

The Town made the long trip down south in a fairly confident frame of mind in the bid to climb up the table and keep alive their outside chance of finishing in fifth place and the possibility of a promotion play-off opportunity.

While the gap still stands at seven points behind the fifth placed Treaty United after they suffered a horrendous 7-0 hammering at home to the league leaders Dundalk, the games are running out for Longford with just eight fixtures remaining. 

Kerry FC and the Town swapped places on the First Division table after Cian Brosnan’s goal separated the teams at the end of a lively contest in Tralee, with the result seeing the home side move up to eighth place at the expense of the midlanders who drop to second from the bottom ninth position. 

Both clubs have 28 points – 11 more Athlone Town and just two and three less than Wexford FC and Finn Harps respectively. Brosnan’s goal was the difference at the end of 95 minutes, with Kerry defending under severe pressure for the final 15 minutes or so as Longford pressed for an equaliser. 

The goal was as good as Kerry have created and scored at Mounthawk Park and it came eight minutes into the second half after a sustained period of pressure. 

Oran Crowe started the move in the middle of the Kerry half when he poked the ball forward to Robert Cleary after a Longford attack broke down. Cleary was deep inside his own half but he saw plenty of clear grass in front of him and set off. He had plenty to do to take on three Longford defenders, but take them on he did. 

Advancing to the edge of the Town box, the penetrating run from Cleary drew all the defensive cover to him but slipped a perfectly weighted pass to the unmarked Brosnan and the local lad swept his first time shot inside Harry Halwax’s near post to give Kerry the lead.   

Interestingly, Kerry created very little after that, but neither did a fairly passive Longford Town, though the visitors did up the ante in the final quarter as they chased an equaliser with the manager Wayne Groves introducing his trademark three subs at the same time (66th minute). 

The only sour note for Kerry was a red card for stalwart defender Kevin Williams, whose second yellow card in added time at the end of the game was seemingly for a simulated dive in the Longford box. 

The first 20 or so minutes produced little by way of goalmouth action or anything to energise the 562 in attendance at Mounthawk Park. 

Indeed, the first legitimate shot on target came from Longford in the 12th minute but Daragh Murtagh’s shot lacked conviction and power and Matthew Connor gathered the ball like it was a backpass.

On 22 minutes Kevin Williams drove into the box and tried to crack a shot at goal but he was well blocked down by former Kerry captain Andy Spain.

In the 25th minute Longford won the game’s first corner, with Aaron Doran slashing a shot high and wide after Kerry had cleared the initial ball into the box.

On 32 minutes Oran Crowe and Sean O’Connell played a one-two with the former showing some neat footwork to get into the box and get a shot off but it was straight at Halwax who wasn’t troubled.

That ignited Kerry's best period of the half Brosnan then teeing up Crowe whose crisp strike was on target and needed some acrobatic goalkeeping from Halwax to push the ball out for a corner. From O’Connell’s in-swinging corner, Niall Brookwell's header was just over the crossbar.

The visitors alleviated the pressure by winning a couple of corner kicks, but Kerry dealt well with everything that came into the box reasonably comfortably, though there was some scrambled clearances required as Town tried to force something.

The best chance of the first half came in the 43rd minute and it would have been a spectacular goal. Joe Adams won a corner, which was swung in by himself and punched out by Halwax. The ball came to Brosnan who spotted the goalkeeper still off his line and he hooked an audacious shot that had Halwax scrambling back to make a fingertip save for another Kerry corner.

Sensing there were three points there for the taking, Kerry started the second half brightly with Brosnan shooting wide in the first minute from Cleary’s assist, and four minutes later Cleary breaking through but getting caught in two minds between chipping the goalkeeper and trying to go around him as Halwax came off his line.

Three minutes later, in the 53rd minute, Kerry broke the deadlock with Cleary doing all the approach work and Brosnan applying the cool finish.

Remarkably, this was just the third time in 111 games in all competitions that Kerry won back to back games.

KERRY FC: Matthew Connor, Kevin Williams, Niall Brookwell, Ewan Lee, Chris McQueen, Sean O’Connell; Oran Crowe, Carl Mujaguzi; Joe Adams, Robert Cleary, Cian Brosnan.

 Subs: Ryan Perez for C Brosnan (61), Arran Healy for J Adams (82), Samuel Aladesanusi for R Cleary (90+3)

LONGFORD TOWN: Harry Halwax; Pharrell Manuel, Andy Spain, Oisin Hand, Dean O’Shea; Daniel Norris, Luke Wade Slater, Sean Moore, Aaron Doran, Stefan Ugbesia; Darragh Murtagh. 

Subs: Francis Campbell for S Ugbesia (66), Kyle Robinson for D Murtagh (66), Emmanuel James for D Norris (66), Mohammed Bodiaf for A Doran (83). 

Referee: Oliver Moran.