Longford defeated Lancashire by 1-26 to 3-11 in this Allianz National Hurling League Division 3B clash at Abbotstown to earn their first win of the League campaign and join Lancashire on two points in the League table.
Lancashire came into the match missing five players who featured in the win over Cavan, as their main scorer, Danny Connolly (he scored 12-points against Cavan), David Burke, Shane Maloney, Shane Nugent, and Ronan Walsh were all missing from the squad. They suffered a further blow just before the throw-in when Greg Jacob pulled up in the warm-up.
Longford made four changes from the starting fifteen that lost narrowly to Fermanagh in their opening match at Glennon Brothers Pearse Park. Enda Naughton, Adam Quinn, Micheal Mulcahy and Cathal Mullane replaced Aidan Sheridan, Evan Tully, Keelan Cox and Ronan Sheehan.
Playing with the aid of a strong wind in the first-half, Longford built up an eleven-point lead by the half-hour mark, 0-14 to 0-3, with Joe O’Brien and Paddy Lynam the chief scorers with six points and four points respectively.
Indeed, Longford should have been much further ahead as they missed three good goal chances in that opening half-hour with Lancashire keeper Darren Cusack making two excellent saves from Micheal Mulcahy and O’Brien, while Cathal Mullane fired a low diagonal shot just wide of the far post.
An O’Brien free, a brace of scores from Lynam and a Mullane point gave Longford an impressive four points to no-score lead before the tenth minute.
Lancashire responded with the next two points as Michael Morgan with a fine score after superb set-up play from the highly impressive Simon Holland, and a Dave Power free brought the English side back to within two points of the Midlanders.
Longford reeled off three unanswered points from Lynam, O’Brien (free), and an excellent score from Cian Kavanagh, while Power with another free, registered Lancashire’s third point of the contest.
Adrian Moran’s charges then surged eleven points clear with a rally of seven successive points, as O’Brien (4), Lynam, Karl Murray, and Kavanagh all added to the Longford total. However, Longford keeper Gallagher produced a top-class save from a brilliant Jordan McAllister strike in the twenty-seventh minute that could have given much needed impetus to the Lancashire cause if the effort had found the net.
Back came Lancashire as their star player Holland fired a salvo of 1-01 in the space of a minute to reduce the arrears back to seven. His goal was superb, he rose majestically, caught the sliotar, turned his two markers, zoned in on goal and blasted the ball to the Longford net.
Longford did not panic and raised the white flag three times in the closing minutes of the half. O’Brien, Corrigan with a classy long-range score, and Mullane with an imperious flicked point from an O’Brien free, all found the target to put them ahead by ten points at the interval.
Longford finished the half strongly with O’Brien, Cathal Mullane, and Emmet Corrigan all raising white flags to give Longford an interval cushion of ten points, 0-17 to 1-4.
Lancashire failed to take full advantage of the elements in their favour in the second-half, despite scoring two more goals.
Although Dave Power converted two frees for Lancashire at the start of the second-half, Longford rattled the Lancashire net on forty-two minutes. Mullane delivered a perfect pass to Corrigan, he ran in on goal and fired a low shot to the corner of the net.
Joe O’Brien then slotted over a sixty-five to give Longford a twelve-point advantage, but two minutes later, the English side scored their second goal. Kevin Fennelly’s pin-point pass found Justin Cleere and he drilled home a low diagonal shot to the far bottom corner of the Longford net.
Reuben Murray and John Mulhern added to the Longford tally with Power adding his fifth of the contest for Lancashire with an excellent long-range score from inside his own half.
At this stage, Longford were up by ten points, 1-20 to 2-07, and when Lancashire were reduced to fourteen players after the dangerous Kevin Fennelly received his marching orders in the fifty-sixth minute for a second yellow card, the contest was effectively over.
Jordan McAllister and Holland kept the scoreboard ticking over for Lancashire, while Mullane’s third point and Lynam’s fifth of the match gave Longford a commanding ten-point lead as the clock ticked into the sixty-eighth minute.
Although Trevor Lee lobbed Longford keeper Gallagher in the seventieth minute for his team’s third goal to reduce the deficit to seven points, Longford rallied to register four of the last six points to run out winners by a nine-point margin. O’Brien added another three points to bring his total up to eleven for the game, while Corrigan concluded the Longford scoring. Power scored his sixth of the contest in the closing stages and Trevor Lee also responded for Lancashire with the last score of the match.
Scorers for Longford: J O’Brien 0-11 (5 f, 1 ’65); P Lynam 0-5; E Corrigan 1-02; C Mullane 0-3; C Kavanagh 0-2; K Murray 0-1; R Murray 0-1; J Mulhern 0-1
Scorers for Lancashire: S Holland 1-02; D Power 0-6 (4f); T Lee 1-1; J Cleere 1-0; M Morgan 0-1; McAllister 0-1
Sent-off: K Fennelly (56)
Lancashire: D Cusack, P Shine, B Slattery, S Wallace, C McDonald, T Lee, J McCourt, S Duncan, D Power, K Fennelly, M Morgan, E Kelly, J McAllister, J Cleere, S Holland.
Subs: J Bayley for McCourt (half-time), R Ivors for Wallace (52), D Fitzell for McDonald (60), C McDonald for Kelly (66 Blood sub)
Longford: C Gallagher, N Moran, E Naughton, J Casey, A Quinn, D Buckley, K Murray, J Mulhern, P Lynam, E Corrigan, J O’Brien, C Kavanagh, R Murray, C Mullane, M Mulcahy.
Subs: K Cox for Casey (half-time), A Sheridan for Moran (69), E Tully for Mullane (70)
Referee: Liam Gordon (Galway)