Wonderful win for resilient Longford in knocking Clare out of the Tailteann Cup

It was supposed to be a very tough task for the Longford senior footballers in Ennis on Saturday but they kept their season alive with a wonderful win in knocking a strongly fancied Clare side out of the Tailteann Cup.

Longford . . . 2-17 Clare . . . 1-18

Decisive goals from the chief marksmen Dylan Farrell (capitalising on a costly mistake in the opposing defence) and Oran Kenny in the closing stages of a highly entertaining second half got the midlanders over the line in a tense and exciting finish to the Round 2B clash.

This was a terrific result for the delighted manager Mike Solan as his resilient players found the energy (particularly the prominent wing back Peter Lynn) to produce their best performance so far this year in advancing to the next round against Down at Pearse Park on Saturday June 6th, throw-in 6pm

Longford took the game to the red--hot 1/6 favourites and thanks to a couple of two-pointers from the leading attackers Kenny and Farrell (who registered a total of 2-11 between them), the underdogs held a slender 0-8 to 0-7 advantage at the break.

On the balance of play, Longford should have been further ahead with a number of chances squandered and a thrilling roller coaster developed in a pulsating second half with the sides sharing some fabulous scores.

With the aid of the breeze, Clare hit the front for the first time (1-8 to 0-10) with a cracking goal from their exceptional centre-half-back Cillian Rouine in the 47th minute, only for Longford to regain the lead moments later with a well struck two-pointer from Matthew Flynn.

Then came a brilliant point-blank save from keeper Eoin McGuinness to prevent Rouine from scoring a second goal in the 49th minute and the ding-dong battle continued with the 5/1 outsiders Longford showing a fierce desire to succeed when many felt they had no chance.

McGuinness came to the rescue again when he parried away a dipping shot from Mark McInerney but Clare were getting on top and looked in a winning position when influential substitute Emmet McMahon landed a great point to put his side 1-13 to 0-14 ahead with 61 minutes gone on the clock.

But Longford just refused to accept defeat and the two goals in quick succession (63rd and 65th minutes) from Dylan Farrell and Oran Kenny (the latter put clean through by impact substitute Aaron Farrell) clinched the well deserved victory - much to the sheer delight of their small band of loyal supporters at the game.

Clare tried hard to rescue the situation with late two-pointers from Aaron Griffin and McMahon to close the gap but time out for the Banner boys who ended their season on a very disappointing note.

CLARE: Tristan O’Callaghan, Alan Sweeney (0-1), Ronan Lanigan, Manus Doherty; Brandy Rouine, Cillian Rouine (1-0), Fionn Kelleher (0-1); Brian McNamara, Cillian Brennan; Conor Meaney, Ikem Ugwueru, Dermot Coughlan (0-1); Mark McInerney (0-4, 1 free, 1’45’), Cormac Murray, Aaron Griffin (0-7, 1 two-pointer from play).

Subs:- Emmet McMahon (0-4, 1 two-pointer from play) for C Murray (54 mins); Eoin Cleary for C Brennan (66 mins); Josh Vaughan for F Kelleher (67 mins).

Blood sub:- Joe Rafferty for C Murray (21 mins); Murray for Rafferty (29 mins).

LONGFORD: Eoin McGuinness (Longford Slashers); Patrick Fox (Mullinalaghta St Columba’s), Niall Farrelly (Killoe Emmet Og), Bryan Masterson (Abbeylara); Peter Lynn (Longford Slashers), Ronan Sweeney (Clonguish), Cian Brady (Abbeylara); Daire Duggan (Sean Connolly’s), Oisin O’Toole (Dromard); Daniel Reynolds (Sean Connolly’s, 0-2), Joseph Hagan (Dromard), Matthew Flynn (Clonguish, 0-2, two-pointer from play); Paddy Moran (Killoe Emmet Og, 0-1), Dylan Farrell (St Brigid’s Killashee, 1-7, 1 two-pointer from play, 2 frees), Oran Kenny (Rathcline, 1-4, 1 two-pointer from play, 1 free).

Subs:- Aaron Farrell (Dromard, 0-1) for J Hagan (49 mins); James Moran (Killoe Emmet Og) for M Flynn (56 mins); Matthew Carey (Clonguish) for P Moran (60 mins); Conor Smyth (Clonguish) for R Sweeney (injured, 63 mins).

Referee: Thomas Murphy (Galway).