RELEGATION RIVALS LONGFORD Town and Sligo Rovers met on a night of great drama in the closing stages at the City Calling Stadium.
It was calm for the majority of the match with neither side willing to risk losing the points, until Kaleem Simon opened the scoring before the 10 men of Sligo Rovers equalised in the last minute of play.
The visitors had the majority of the possession early on in the proceedings and were unlucky not to open the scoring on several occasions. Morten Nielson found David Cawley just inside the area but his shot didn’t have the required force to find its way past Paul Skinner, who comfortably denied Sligo the opener.
This continued in Sligo’s favour when Myrie-Williams found Dinny Corcoran in a dangerous area with a defence-splitting cross, but Conor Powell somehow managed to clear the threat in the nick of time.
Advertisement
The game was turned on its head midway through the first-half when Rovers defender Tim Clancy was shown a straight red card after a bust-up with Garry Shaw.
Longford reorganised in the second-half and Shaw was unlucky not to break the deadlock when he turned the shortened defence and released a fantastic shot, but Sligo goalkeeper Richard Brush got down to the ball in time.
Sligo upped their search for the three points when Anthony Elding and Danny Ledwith were introduced with just over 10 minutes remaining.
Longford found their goal completely against the pace of the game when super sub Kaleem Simon latched on to the end of a cross by Philip Gannon and pushed it in at the back post, with the visitors kicking themselves that they were unable to capitalise on earlier opportunities.
The Western outfit did find an equaliser in dramatic fashion on the stroke of full-time, however, when Elding got on the end of Hughes’ lob and headed home for a goal that may prove crucial in Sligo’s bid to stay in the top flight.
Late drama in tonight's relegation battle between Longford Town and Sligo Rovers
Longford Town 1
Sligo Rovers 1
RELEGATION RIVALS LONGFORD Town and Sligo Rovers met on a night of great drama in the closing stages at the City Calling Stadium.
It was calm for the majority of the match with neither side willing to risk losing the points, until Kaleem Simon opened the scoring before the 10 men of Sligo Rovers equalised in the last minute of play.
The visitors had the majority of the possession early on in the proceedings and were unlucky not to open the scoring on several occasions. Morten Nielson found David Cawley just inside the area but his shot didn’t have the required force to find its way past Paul Skinner, who comfortably denied Sligo the opener.
This continued in Sligo’s favour when Myrie-Williams found Dinny Corcoran in a dangerous area with a defence-splitting cross, but Conor Powell somehow managed to clear the threat in the nick of time.
The game was turned on its head midway through the first-half when Rovers defender Tim Clancy was shown a straight red card after a bust-up with Garry Shaw.
Longford reorganised in the second-half and Shaw was unlucky not to break the deadlock when he turned the shortened defence and released a fantastic shot, but Sligo goalkeeper Richard Brush got down to the ball in time.
Sligo upped their search for the three points when Anthony Elding and Danny Ledwith were introduced with just over 10 minutes remaining.
Longford found their goal completely against the pace of the game when super sub Kaleem Simon latched on to the end of a cross by Philip Gannon and pushed it in at the back post, with the visitors kicking themselves that they were unable to capitalise on earlier opportunities.
The Western outfit did find an equaliser in dramatic fashion on the stroke of full-time, however, when Elding got on the end of Hughes’ lob and headed home for a goal that may prove crucial in Sligo’s bid to stay in the top flight.
Longford Town: Skinner, Haverty, Powell, Sullivan, Ben Mohamed, Gannon, Gorman, O’Connor, Shannon (Simon, 79), Kelly, Shaw (O’Sullivan, 79).
Sligo Rovers: Brush, Keane, Donelon, Clancy, Peers, Cretaro (Elding, 77), Cawley, Boylan, Myrie-Williams, Corcoran (Hughes, 71), Nielsen (Ledwith, 77).
Man-of-the-match: Paul Skinner
Referee: Sean Grant
O’Neill expresses concern about Ireland’s 72-hour turnaround
Shane Long: Beating Germany was special – now we’ve got to make it mean something
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
League of Ireland LOI Longford Town Sligo Rovers SSE Airtricity League Premier Division Survival