Another home defeat as Longford Town suffer a serious blow for play-off hopes

Longford Town . . . 0 Treaty United . . . 2

Two first half goals from Colin Conroy and Mark Byrne plus three outstanding saves from keeper Jack Brady deservedly secured all three points for second from bottom Treaty United against Longford Town FC at Bishopsgate on Saturday night.

It was easily the Town’s worst home performance of the season and this second consecutive home defeat after last week’s loss to Kerry FC has dealt a serious blow to the midlanders promotion play-off hopes as they remain sixth in the table.

Treaty came close to opening the scoring on nine minutes when central striker Cian Curtis ran in behind the Town rearguard to receive a defence splitting pass but Town keeper Kian Moore raced off his line to make a brilliant save.

Just two minutes later, the visitors did take the lead when Colin Conroy’s crisp low shot from the edge of the Longford penalty area nestled in the back of the net.

The Limerick men were well on top and they carved open the Longford back-line again on the quarter-hour mark. The impressive Curtis went on a storming run and then spread the ball out to the overlapping Billy Regan who raced into the Town box but his shot produced a fine save from Longford stopper Kian Moore.

The home side’s first opportunity came on seventeen minutes when Aaron Doran passed the ball to Pharrell Manuel on the right and his cross picked out striker Dean Williams at the back post but somehow his close-range header was superbly tipped over the bar by Treaty (and former Longford) keeper Jack Brady.

Treaty almost doubled their lead in the twenty-first minute when striker Fuhad Kareem’s twelve-yard effort was cleared off the line by Longford defender Alex O’Brien.

Longford came close to equalising on thirty-three minutes when another Manuel cross from the right again found the head of striker Williams but Treaty keeper Brady pulled off another great save from his header.

The visitors deservedly went two goals up on thirty-five minutes when Mark Byrne outpaced the Town defence down the right and cut inside to the box before firing in a low diagonal shot to the bottom left corner of the Longford net.

Treaty should have made it three on sixty-five minutes when Byrne’s left-wing cross picked out substitute Ben Feeney at the back post but he fired wide when he should have scored.

Longford Town should have pulled a goal back on seventy-one minutes when they were awarded a penalty.

A cross from the left was poorly cleared by defender Ben Lynch and the ball landed at the feet of Aaron Doran just inside the box but as he was about to pull the trigger, he was fouled by Ronan Manning and referee Declan Toland correctly pointed to the spot.

However, typical of a truly appalling performance from the home side, as he ran up to take the spot kick, Doran slipped and then saw his penalty saved by Treaty stopper Brady.

Treaty substitute Jason Oyenuga almost made it three-nil in stoppage time but his sixteen-yard low shot towards the bottom left corner of the Town net was well saved by Kian Moore.

LONGFORD TOWN (4-2-3-1): Kian Moore, Adenekan, O’Brien, McCarthy, Hough, Sean Moore, Paraschiv, Manuel, Doran, Bailey, Williams.

Substitutes: Ugbesia for Manuel and Murtagh for Bailey (both 63 minutes), Campbell for Williams and Harris for Paraschiv (both 72 minutes).

TREATY UNITED (4-3-3): Brady, Regan, Cantwell, Foley, Lynch, Manning, Conroy, Healy, Byrne, Curtis, Kareem.

Substitutes: Feeney for Kareem (57 minutes), Oyenuga for Byrne (60 minutes), Nwankwo for Curtis and Murphy for Manning (both 75 minutes).

Referee: Declan Toland.