Longford Town 0
Shamrock Rovers 1
Ronan Macnamara reports from Bishopsgate
IT WAS another late, late show for Shamrock Rovers as Rory Gaffney’s 95th-minute winner gave the champions a 1-0 win over Longford Town at Bishopsgate.
It arrests a run of three games without a win for Rovers and closes the gap on Sligo Rovers at the summit to the minimum, and it also means the Hoops have won nine points in added time this season.
Both sides played out a tentative opening half with Longford maintaining a disciplined shape to stifle the Rovers attack.
The hosts started well and had a strong appeal for a penalty waved away by referee Ray Mathews after Aaron McNally’s cross caught Lee Grace on the arm from point-blank range.
Rovers dominated and looked dangerous after the half-hour mark. The best chance of the half fell to Liam Scales when Sean Gannon found him in acres of space at the back post, but his tame header went wide.
Scales thought he had set up Gaffney but the goal was correctly ruled out for a handball.
Heartbreak for Longford Town 💔
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Shamrock Rovers leave it late again and claim all 3 points thanks to a Rory Gaffney goal 😲
FT | @LongfordTownFC 0-1 @ShamrockRovers
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Graham Burke had two shots in quick succession fly wide of either post as the first half drew to a close.
Stephen Bradley’s charges dominated the second period. Steacy produced a smart save low to his right to keep out Burke’s free kick in the 55th minute.
Gaffney should have done better after he met Scales’ cross, but he couldn’t keep his header down before Burke dragged a shot wide from 12 yards with the goal at his mercy.
Town striker Rob Manley spurned his sides best opportunity of the game in the 65th minute when he hooked over from close range.
The champions persevered and got their reward with the last kick of the game. Steacy produced a stunning save to deny Burke but Gaffney hammered home from close range to break Longford hearts.
Longford Town: Lee Steacy, Aaron McNally (Karl Chambers 57), Aaron O’Driscoll, Paddy Kirk, Aodh Dervin, Dean Zambra, Michael McDonnell, Aaron Robinson, Callum Thompson (Dylan Grimes 57), Rob Manley (Joe
Manley 90), Aaron Dobbs (Dean Byrne 76).
Shamrock Rovers: Alan Mannus, Sean Gannon, Sean Hoare, Lee Grace, Roberto Lopes, Liam Scales, Gary O’Neill (Chris McCann 82), Danny Mandroiu, Graham Burke, Aaron Greene (Dean Williams 74), Rory Gaffney.
I dreamt last night we scored against them in the first min. off to the bookies this morn. come on da boys in green.
ah now Liamo, you’re beginning to sound like a cork langer, and we’ve more than enough of them. Ireland will finish top of the group, and you know we will.
and you sound deluded, but I hope you’re right.
Brady is spot on, still hope we do well but it’s going to be hard getting out of our group, if we do we could go all the way
You serious?
I’d listen to mr Brady if I was you, or are we so used to listening to people in this country who don’t know what they are talking about, that we don’t recognise one who does, ?
My only worry is that we’ve been largely untested, Italy had been poor when we played them. France were definitely not playing their A-game. And the first Russia match was a real eye opener.
However the score still ended 3-2, not to mention holding them to 0-0 away.
There’s no doubt about it, we will have to use team morale as a tool, once a good team sees a chink in our armour they’ll tear us apart.
Thankfully trap knows this.
Croatia have a decent squad but we shouldnt fear them, L.Modric is their best player by a stretch, Krancjar is considered an important player for them & he cant make the spurs team. They have some other decent players but I wouldnt put them in the same bracket as Holland, Germany, Spain. The winner will come from those three in my opinion. Ireland can definitely make it out of their group, draw against Croatia as we always do, will probably lose to Spain & go for it against Italy, who knows, there isnt any pressure on us.
If only Paul the Octopus was still with us. He’d know the winner.
Really any team that gets out of any group can win it. Some very tough groups but anything can happen in knockout football. Come on Ireland.