The Longford hurlers earned their second successive league victory with a narrow 1-point win over Leitrim at Glennon Brothers Pearse Park, as Adrian Moran’s charges ran out winners by 1-15 to 1-14.
This victory allied to Lancashire’s heavy defeat to Fermanagh means that Fermanagh, Longford, and Leitrim are the three teams to progress to the knock-out stages with one round of fixtures remaining.
The final round of fixtures in two weeks time will decide who goes straight to the final, with the other two teams facing-off in a semi-final match.
Leitrim came into the match with a one hundred percent record having beaten both Lancashire and Cavan, and they made the better start to score the first two points of the contest courtesy of Martin Feeney and Sean Markham with five minutes gone.
Longford reeled of the next three scores to lead by a point after eight minutes through Karl Murray, Cathal Mullane, and a Paddy Lynam point from just beyond the sixty-five.
Leitrim fired over six of the next seven points to go back ahead by four points on twenty-two minutes.
Three points from Gavan O’Hagan, and a point each from Brendan Delaney, Feeney, and Joe Murray, gave the visitors the lead on a score-line of 0-08 to O-04, with a free from Joe O’Brien, Longford’s only reply.
It could have been a 6-point deficit for Longford, but they had a lucky escape with the Murray point they conceded.
An O’Hagan free was splendidly caught by the towering Delaney, he quickly played in the unmarked Murray and his blistering shot rattled the top of the Longford crossbar as it split the uprights.
Leitrim suffered a massive blow in the twenty-third minute when their commanding Centre-half back, Karl McDermott, had to depart through injury.
Longford finished the half the stronger as they blitzed the Leitrim reargaurd, scoring 1-04, while holding the opposition to just one more point in the closing stages of the half.
O’Brien sent over four points between the twenty-fifth and thirty-fifth minutes, while Murray added Leitrim’s ninth of the contest, after superb set-up play from O’Hagan and Delaney, as the home side reduced the arrears to just a single point going into stoppage time.
Longford then delivered a hammer blow to Leitrim with a crucial goal just before the interval.
An O’Brien free into the parallelogram caused mayhem in the Leitrim defence. Both Cathal Mullane and Micheal Mulcahy had goalbound shots brilliantly blocked down, but when the sliotar broke to Mullane a second-time, he powered a low shot to the Leitrim net to give Longford a half-time lead of 1-08 to 0-09.
Points from Lynam and O’Brien in the opening eleven minutes of the second-half stretched Longford’s lead to four.
Indeed, Longford should have been up by six points at that stage as O’Brien’s point could easily have been three. Outstanding play from Reuben Murray created a goal chance for the talismanic forward but his effort was too high.
A minute after that let-off, Leitrim raised the green flag to trail by just a single point.
A long ball down the side-line eventually resulted in Murray holding off two Longford defenders and when the ball broke to Diarmuid Kelleher, he went on a diagonal run, before dispatching the sliotar to the Longford net.
Back came Longford with the next two scores courtesy of a Lynam free and a fine score from play by Emmet Corrigan to put them ahead by 1-12 to 1-09 after forty-nine minutes.
However, Leitrim responded with the next three scores, as O’Hagan, Markham, and Murray all raised the white flag to level matters by the fifty-ninth minute.
Reuben Murray then edged Longford ahead on the hour mark with a good point, and when a surging run from Adam Quinn resulted in his pin-point pass putting substitute Ronan Sheahan in on goal, a home win seemed assured, however, the Longford forward’s tame strike was saved by Leitrim keeper Cunniffe.
Murray brought Leitrim back to parity in the sixty-third minute with his fourth point of the match, only for Longford to edge ahead again a minute later courtesy of O’Brien’s seventh point, after he received a super pass from the exceptionally outstanding John Mulhern.
Substitute Liam Moreton equalised for Leitrim on sixty-five minutes, but the winning score came the way of the home side on sixty-seven minutes, as Lynam kept his composure to fire over a free.
Scorers: Longford- O’Brien 0-07 (3 f), Mullane 1-01, Lynam 0-04 (2 f, 1 ’65), Karl Murray 0-01, Corrigan 0-01, Reuben Murray 0-01.
Scorers: Leitrim- O’Hagan 0-04 (3 f), Murray 0-04 (2 f), Kelleher 1-00, Feeney 0-02, Markham 0-02, Delaney 0-01, Moreton 0-01.
Longford: Conor Gallagher, Niall Moran, Enda Naughton, Aidan Sheridan, Adam Quinn, David Buckley, Karl Murray, John Mulhern, Paddy Lynam, Emmet Corrigan, Joe O’Brien, Cian Kavanagh, Reuben Murray, Cathal Mullane, Micheal Mulcahy.
Substitutions: Ronan Sheahan for Mulcahy (49 minutes), Kealan Cox for Sheridan (51 minutes), Evan Tully for Buckley (54 minutes), Johnny Casey for O’Brien (67 minutes).
Leitrim: Clement Cunniffe, David McGovern, Kevin Clerkin, Paul Lenehan, Conor Hackett, Karl McDermott, Stephen McGoldrick, Senan Keane, Martin Feeney, Sean Markham, Gavin O’Hagan, Cian Mallon, Brendan Delaney, Diarmuid Kelleher, Joe Murray.
Substitutions: Aaron McDermott for Karl McDermott (23 minutes), Tadgh Brannagan for Senan Keane (half-time), Ethan Clancy for McGoldrick (36 minutes), Liam Moreton for Mallon (52 minutes), Michael O’Brien for Delaney (52 minutes).
Referee: Sean Stack (Clare).