City seal Saturday win late in Longford

By Donncha Noonan | Photo: Kevin Barry Dorney

Fresh off of a resounding win against promotion rivals UCD, City were looking to extend their gap at the top of the tab;e as they travelled to play Longford Town. After a scrappy first half, City took control and managed to grab a 2-0 win. 

Barry Robson named an unchanged side from the team that beat UCD, hoping that they could replicate last Friday’s performance.

Wayne Groves also selected the same side that won in Wexford last time out, looking to do the same again in this fixture.

The game started off slowly with both teams struggling to get a foothold in the game, but City got a helping hand sixteen minutes in. Darragh Crowley broke out of the defence, and took a heavy touch which Sultan Adenekan tried to pounce on. Instead, he lunged in and caught Crowley high, which left the referee no choice but to send Adenekan off.

The game continued to be fairly barren when it comes to chances, but City were the ones to come closest on the stroke of half time. Longford were able to clear a City corner, but the visitors recycled it out to Cillian Murphy on the right hand side. He cut inside and swung a ball into the danger zone, where it fractionally missed everyone and forced Kian Moore to collect the ball.

That was all for the first half as both sides went in level and frustrated due to their lack of chances created.

City came out looking much stronger and it only took them five minutes to get the opener. Greg Bolger swung in a free kick from the left towards the back post where it was Conor Drinan who rose highest to power a header past Kian Moore at his near post to give his side the lead.

Longford didn't lie down after conceding and had a good chance of their own in the fifty-fourth minute. Aaron Doran broke through in midfield and fired it forward to the feet of Dean Williams. He found the charging run of Jake Hough to his left, who ripped a first time effort narrowly wide of the far right corner.

City had two chances in a row to double their lead in the sixtieth minute. Cillian Murphy got the ball down the left channel and squared it across to Seani Maguire, who saw his close range effort saved by Kian Moore. It was recycled by AJ Bridge, who pulled it back for the oncoming Darragh Crowley, but his first time shot rattled off the bottom of the left hand post.

City went and chased that elusive second goal, and really should've got it in the eight fourth minute. Matthew Murray latched onto a botched Longford clearance before the ball came out from him into the path of Conor Drinan. His deflected shot was tipped onto the crossbar by Kian Moore, but the ball fell to Ruairi Keating, whose close-range side-footed effort somehow flew over the bar.

City finally sealed the game in the ninety-seventh minute. Longford sent everyone into the box, including Kian Moore, for a late corner, but it was headed away by Darragh Crowley into the path of Cillian Murphy, he sprinted away from the Longford defence before spraying the ball through back to Darragh Crowley, who made it all the way and rolled the ball into an empty net to secure all three points would come back with City.

That would spell the end of this one as after a dogged first half, City grabbed a bit of control of the game in the second half and were able to come out with a solid 2-0 win.The visitors will probably feel like they could've ended with three or four with some of the chances that they missed in the second half, but they weren't necessarily needed as City always seemed to have Longford at arms length in the second period. The slow start will concern Barry Robson though as were Longford to have started well, his side could’ve been left with an uphill task after the first half.

My Man of the Match goes to Conor Drinan. The left back was defensively sound all night long, and contributed a lot going forward bombing down the left, especially in the second half. He gave City a huge boost in the game grabbing the opener, and overall the Corkman has had the best season of his City career so far this season.

It's another away trip in the midlands for City to look forward to on Friday as they'll travel to Athlone. As for Longford, they also have a trip, but for them it’s to Donegal to face Finn Harps.