Sligo Rovers 1-3 Longford Town

Airtricity U19 League of Ireland

Northern Division

Sunday 25th March 2012

Sligo Rovers 1-3 Longford Town

Report by: Rachael Mc Keon

On Sunday the Longford Town U19’s travelled to Sligo in the hope of making it a double winning weekend for the club following the first teams' win over Waterford United the previous night. The Town side started like a team full of confidence following their draw against Derry City in their last game. In the first few minutes, Town striker Siode showed great pace and strength but twice was unlucky not to break the deadlock early on. Soon after it was his strike partner Rossiter who was played in by Flannery from midfield but was denied by some good Sligo defending.

These chances seemed to spur Sligo into action and the home sides' centre midfielder unleashed a great shot which was heading into the top corner of the Town net but somehow keeper Devlin managed to reach the ball and tip it out for a corner. From the resulting corner Devlin was called upon yet again and made another fine save. From here on the away side began to look more comfortable and on 25 minutes Araujo received the ball from Carberry just inside the Sligo box and slotted the ball home into the bottom corner of the net. Minute’s later midfielder Cosgrave was unlucky to see his shot go inches wide after some good passing play. The rest of the half didn’t produce any chances of note as both teams were working hard to keep the other out and the half ended 1-0 to the visitors.

As the second half got under way Sligo came out and pushed forward with purpose but the Town defence were standing firm and soaked up the pressure. On 56 minutes Sligo were to find an equaliser when a mix up between Devlin and Glacken was pounced on by the Sligo striker who poked the ball home. This was harsh on the away side, who were defending well.

The Town didn’t let their heads drop however and pushed on in search of their second goal. On 76 minutes their hard work and determination was to pay off, even though it was somewhat fortunate. Araujo received the ball about 15 meters inside his own half, he played the ball forward towards the strikers but having put too much pace on the pass the ball bounced in front of the back pedaling Sligo keeper and found its way into the net. This was hard on the home side’s keeper but no more than the away side deserved. This took the wind out of Sligo and Longford were starting to look comfortable.

The home side did have a couple of half chances as time ticked by, but with 2 minutes to go Siode capitalised on a mix up in the Sligo defence to head home the away side's third and final goal. On what was a great day for a football match Longford Town will be delighted to register their first League win and are now unbeaten in their last two games. With Monaghan United visiting Flancare Park at 2pm on Saturday next, they will be hopeful of extending this to three.

The Longford Town U19 team and management would like to thank Spar Express on the Dublin Rd. in Longford for their kind sponsorship.

Longford Town: Conor Devlin, Patrick Clinton, Stephen Boateng, Shane O’Connell, Cillian Glacken, Leo Araujo, Dean Cosgrave, Sean Flannery, Mark Rossiter, Efe Siode, Darren Carberry.

Subs: Paddy Cheevers for Rossiter (75mins), Ciaran Fagan for Cosgrave (89mins), Padraig Gallagher for Siode (89mins).

Not Used: Tommy Cooney.