Tailteann Cup Group Three

Longford 3-17 Wicklow 2-9

By Gerry Buckley at Glennon Brothers Pearse Park

Longford had no difficulty defeating Wicklow at Glennon Brothers Pearse Park.

Wicklow goalkeeper Mark Jackson opened the scoring with a superb ‘45’ conversion in the second minute, but with the losers conceding the kick-outs Longford went on to dominate the first half. Three unanswered points by the ninth minute put them into a lead they never looked remotely likely to relinquish, two of them coming from lively corner forward Oran Kenny (the first from a free).

Paddy Christie's men led by 0-3 to 0-2 when they pounced for their first goal in the 11th minute, Joe Hagan availing of a mix-up in the Wicklow defence and slotting the ball to the unguarded net after a Darren Gallagher point attempt had dropped short. In the 17th minute, a quickly-taken free by Keelin McGann teed up Dylan Farrell for a well-taken second goal.

Longford proceeded to kick some fine points from play and all of their six forwards made the scoresheet in the first half. The visitors got a boost in the 32nd minute when corner back Eoin Murtagh popped up close to the Longford goal to rifle the ball past Patrick Collum. However, Longford still led by 2-11 to 1-3 at the interval.

A brace of Kenny frees increased Longford’s lead within six minutes of the resumption of play. Oisín McConville’s troops responded with a hat-trick of unanswered points, but that was as good as it got and when Hagan rounded off a fine move with his second goal in the 52nd minute to put his side ahead by 3-14 to 1-06 any semblance of a contest disappeared.

Unexpected rain made underfoot conditions slippery in the second half and the closing quarter was quite lifeless with the home team always keeping the scoreboard ticking over. Wicklow had the small consolation of doubling their goal tally with the last kick of the match when Eoin Darcy superbly converted a penalty kick.

Scorers for Longford: O Kenny 0-8 (5fs), J Hagan 2-0, D Farrell 1-2 (0-1f), K McGann 0-2, I O'Sullivan, P Lynn, D Reynolds, Aaron Farrell, J Macken 0-1 each.

Scorers for Wicklow: E Darcy 1-4 (1-0 pen, 0-2fs, 0-1 mark), E Murtagh 1-0, C Fee 0-2, D Healy, JP Nolan, M Jackson ('45') 0-1 each.

Longford: P Collum; P Fox, Andrew Farrell, B Masterson; I O’Sullivan, M Quinn, P Lynn; R Moffett, D Gallagher; J Hagan, D Reynolds, Aaron Farrell; K McGann, D Farrell, O Kenny.

Subs: J Macken for Gallagher (59), B O’Farrell for Quinn (59), R Harkin for Lynn (64), T McNevin for Aaron Farrell (64), M Duffy for D Farrell (67).

Wicklow: M Jackson; E Murtagh, P McLoughlin, M Stone; J McCall, P O’Keane, M Kenny; D Healy, P O’Toole; C Fee, JP Hurley, J Kirwan; J Prendergast, C O’Sullivan, E Darcy.

Subs: M Nolan for McCall (32), JP Nolan for Prendergast (h-t), J Keogh for O’Sullivan (51), T Maher for Hurley (64), L O’Neill for McLoughlin (67).

Referee: B Tiernan (Dublin).