Dramatic finish as Abbeylara and Ardagh Moydow share spoils in Longford SFC
Peter Hanley Motors Longford Senior Football Championship Group A Round 2: Abbeylara 2-10 Ardagh Moydow 2-10
For the second successive match, Ardagh Moydow were unable to win a game in which they held a six-point half-time lead, but at least this time, a late Eugene Murray goal secured a vital point for last year’s Intermediate kingpins.
With fifty-seven minutes on the clock and darkness descending on Friday evening at at C & D Devine Park, Ardagh Moydow were two points ahead, 1-10 to 1-8, when Abbeylara full-forward Cathal Gilligan blasted the ball to the net to put the 2024 Connolly Cup Champions ahead.
And when half-time substitute Robbie Smyth sent over a brilliant two-pointer free on the hour mark to give his team a three-point cushion, 2-10 to 1-10, it seemed like defeat would be the outcome for Liam Keenan’s battling side.
However a deserved draw was achieved two minutes into additional time when Murray reacted quickest to a loose ball and somehow managed to rattle the Abbey net despite falling backwards as he shot.
Jamie Connor slotted over two points for Ardagh Moydow including a free, while Nigel Rabbitt replied with a free for Abbeylara in the opening seven minutes of the contest.
After ten scoreless minutes, the game burst into life with two goals in a three-minute spell. Abbeylara took a two-point lead with a superbly worked 17th minute goal.
Midfielder Cian Brady charged forward leaving several defenders in his wake, and he laid the ball off to Ciaran Scanlon, and although Scanlon’s rasping thirty metre shot was brilliantly parried away by keeper Cian O’Beirne, Michael McHugh was in the right place at the right time to fire home the rebound.
Three minutes later, Ardagh Moydow, who suffered a 2-12 to 0-20 defeat against Dromard in round one, raised a green flag of their own.
Abbey keeper Barney Crawford’s kick-out was superbly fielded by midfielder Max Gallagher who spread the ball out to Darryl Carrigy on the left and he rifled the ball to the roof of the Abbeylara net from about twenty-five metres out to give Ardagh Moydow a 1-2 to 1-1 advantage.
That goal was the start of an unanswered scoring spree of one goal and five points as Ardagh Moydow built up a six-point interval lead.
Connor with a free, Carrigy, Connor Hogan, Killian Farrell, and Carrigy again from just inside the arc, all raised the white flag as Ardagh Moydow led by 1-7 to 1-1 as the teams went into the dressing room.
Indeed, it could have been a bigger lead for Ardagh Moydow as they almost added a second goal in the twenty-fourth minute. Superb set-up play from Killian Farrell and Dylan Coady provided a chance for Conor Carroll who ran in on goal from the right only to see his shot brilliantly blocked by Crawford in the Abbeylara goal.
The introduction of half-time substitute Robbie Smyth galvanised Frankie Dolan’s charges who played with the wind in the second-half, and the talismanic Smyth was instrumental in the Abbeylara comeback.
In the early stages of the second-half, Smyth with a free and Carrigy from play exchanged points to keep the six-point margin intact, 1-8 to 1-2.
However, the North Longford men, who romped to a facile 3-24 to 2-11 first round win over Rathcline, fired over six of the next seven points to reduce the arrears to just the minimum by the fifty-first minute.
Gilligan slotted over three points with Padraig Berry, Brady, and Scanlon all registering a point apiece. Ardagh Moydow’s only score in that period came from the boot of Connor, keeping their noses ahead by 1-9 to 1-8.
A Carrigy shot for a point on fifty-five minutes came back off the upright but Diarmuid Farrell did extend the advantage to two points a minute later, when his shot for goal was just narrowly over the crossbar.
We then had that dramatic finish with Gilligan’s goal and Smyth’s two-pointer free putting Abbeylara on the verge of making it two championship wins from two, only for Murray securing the draw for Ardagh Moydow with a crucial goal in injury time.
ABBEYLARA: Barney Crawford; Bryan Masterson, Mel Brady, Colin Gilna; Michael McHugh (1-0), Fergal Battrim, Nigel Rabbitt (0-1, free); Caolan Lynch, Cian Brady (0-1); Matthew Quinn, Ciaran Scanlon (0-1), Dylan Ledwith; Padraig Berry (0-1), Cathal Gilligan (1-3), Karl O’Hara.
Subs: Robbie Smyth (0-3,1 two-pointer free) for Quinn (half-time), Jason Kelly for Berry (46 mins), Shane Mahon for Mel Brady (54 mins).
ARDAGH MOYDOW: Cian O’Beirne; Mark McCord, Tommy Powell, Fergal Keenan; Diarmuid Farrell (0-1), James McGoey, Conor Carroll; Max Gallagher, Dylan Fay; Emmet Donlon, Dylan Coady, Connor Hogan (0-1); Jamie Connor (0-4, 2 frees), Killian Farrell (0-1), Darryl Carrigy (1-3).
Subs: Eugene Murray (1-0) for Donlon (4 mins), Jack Gallagher for Keenan (52 mins), Paddy Hanley for Killian Farrell (57 mins), Gerard Farrell for McGoey (59 mins).
Referee: Fergal Kelly