Longford’s vital victory against Leitrim blows the fierce battle for promotion wide open

Longford . . . 1-16  Leitrim . . . 0-13

In recovering really well from the setback of losing their first two fixtures against Laois and Tipperary, promotion for Longford in Division 4 of the National Football League is now very much a possibility following the vital victory against Leitrim in the crunch clash at Glennon Brothers Pearse Park on Sunday last.

The fierce battle for second spot behind the unbeaten table toppers Laois (on their way back into Division 3) has been blown wide open with Longford, Leitrim, Wexford and Carlow deadlocked on six points apiece with a couple of rounds remaining in what has developed into a very intriguing situation.

Paddy Christie’s revitalised players have shown a lot of character to bounce back from the bad start to the league campaign and will resume their push for promotion at home to Carlow on Saturday week (March 16) with the last match in the competitive Division 4 away to Wexford on Sunday March 24.

Although the Longford supporters were greatly outnumbered by the enthusiastic Leitrim followers in the 2,000 plus attendance in fine conditions at Pearse Park, it was the home side who completely dominated the first quarter of the local derby with the neighbouring counties clashing in the National Football League for the first time since 2020.

The Longford cause was certainly helped by a black card for key Leitrim attacker Ryan O’Rourke with six minutes gone in the first half and the midlanders made good use of the extra man advantage to establish a comfortable 1-5 to 0-0 lead.

Keelin McGann set up Cathal McCabe for the well-taken goal in the 15th minute and the clearly rattled visitors had to wait until the 19th minute for their opening score from Pearce Dolan.

Leitrim, to their credit, rallied to close the gap to four points 1-8 to 0-7 at the break with Longford’s commanding midfielder Darren Gallagher and the target man Michael Quinn at full-forward utilising their vast experience in posing plenty of problems for Andy Moran’s men.

Longford then suffered the setback of losing their other midfielder Paddy Kiernan to a black card with four minutes gone in the second half and when Leitrim corner back Conor Reynolds surged forward to shoot over the bar, just a couple of points (1-9 to 0-10) were separating the sides.

But there was no sign of panic from the confident home county who managed to consolidate their tight grip on the game with a valuable contribution from impact substitute Mark Hughes who fired over three points.

Lively corner-forward Cathal McCabe was also much to the fore up front in ending up with a total of 1-2 and whatever hopes Leitrim had of pulling the game out of the fire were burned when their physically strong midfielder Jack Gilheaney was sent-off in the 53rd minute after receiving a second yellow card.

There was a lot to like about the overall Longford display, starting with the competent goalkeeper Micheal Hughes and the defence in general were a tight unit who gave little away.

Leitrim had only one real goal chance when full-forward Darragh Rooney pulled his strike narrowly wide of the post in the 24th minute of the first half, at a stage when Longford were leading by 1-6 to 0-1 with two of the points (free and play) coming from Darren Gallagher.

Dessie Reynolds, Joseph Hagan, Paddy Kiernan and Daniel Reynolds were also on target but Leitrim then staged a very determined comeback which yielded five points in a row - a brace from Rooney (1 mark) with Ryan O’Rourke, corner-back Aidan Flynn and Barry McNulty also shooting over the bar.

Gallagher converted another couple of frees in the closing stages of the first half to steady things with Mark Plunkett getting his name on the scoresheet for Leitrim and the latter landed another point with a couple of minutes gone on the changeover.

Direct from the throw-in at the start of the second half, Darragh Rooney was on the mark again but the pressure was eased on Longford when Cathal McCabe cut through to fist the ball over the bar.

While the black card for Paddy Kiernan was a blow, Longford crucially outscored Leitrim 0-2 to 0-1 with 14 players during this ten minute sin-bin period with the points coming from Gallagher (free) and McCabe.

Conor Reynolds replied for Leitrim who were restricted to just three more scores during the remainder of this entertaining encounter - a tremendous effort from Darragh Rooney along with a brace of points from substitute Paul Heaney.

The significant introduction of Mark Hughes reaped a rich dividend with his three points (one from play) and with another score apiece from Darren Gallagher (set up by Liam Hughes on one of his frequent breaks out of the defence) and substitute Ruairi Harkin, it all ended in a fairly emphatic win for Longford who are gathering momentum at just the right time.

LONGFORD: Micheal Hughes (Killoe); Liam Hughes (Killoe), Oisin O’Toole (Dromard), Patrick Fox (Mullinalaghta); Keelin McGann (Kenagh), Ryan Moffett (Killoe), Dessie Reynolds (Sean Connolly’s, 0-1); Darren Gallagher (Granard, 0-6, 4 frees), Paddy Kiernan (Killoe, 0-1); Bryan Masterson (Abbeylara), Joseph Hagan (Dromard, 0-1), Daniel Reynolds (Sean Connolly’s, 0-1); Daniel Mimnagh (Killoe), Michael Quinn (Killoe), Cathal McCabe (Colmcille, 1-2).

Subs:- Mark Hughes (Killoe, 0-3, 1 free, 1 mark) for K McGann (45 mins); Ruairi Harkin (Colmcille, 0-1) for L Hughes (59 mins); Dylan Farrell (Killashee) for P Kiernan (59 mins); Bryn Peters (Rathcline) for B Masterson (63 mins); Daire Duggan (Sean Connolly’s) for C McCabe (stoppage time).

LEITRIM: Nevin O’Donnell; Conor Reynolds (0-1), Donal Casey, Aidan Flynn (0-1); Adam Reynolds, Mark Diffley, Jack Foley; Jack Gilheany, Donal Wrynn; Shane Quinn, Barry McNulty (0-1), Ryan O’Rourke (0-1); Pearce Dolan (0-1), Darragh Rooney (0-4, 1 mark), Mark Plunkett (0-2).

Subs:- Cathal McHugh for A Reynolds (18 mins); Riordan O’Rourke for D Wrynn (41 mins); Tom Prior for S Quinn (51 mins); Paul Keaney (0-2) for M Plunkett (56 mins); Radek Oberwan for P Dolan (62 mins). 

Referee: Kevin Faloon (Armagh).