Cork City - 1 Longford Town - 1: Cork City beat the referee's whistle by seconds to salvage a welcome point from a controversial Eircom League tie with Longford Town at Turner's Cross.

Substitute Denis Behan scored two minutes into added time to deny Longford Town a surprise win in a game that ended in a welter of excitement.

Longford had led from the 31st minute when the Cork defence failed to deal with a free kick. Gary Cronin struck the free sweetly from 30 yards and goalkeeper Michael Devine had to scramble to turn it away. His fellow defenders reacted slowly as Dave Freeman scored from the rebound, his first for the club.

Longford fought with real determination to defend this lead and they had all but succeeded when suddenly the game exploded as the temperature rose toward the close.

Full-back Alan Murphy was booked for wasting time five minutes from the end, then Dessie Baker was dismissed after a foul on Danny Murphy.

When the game resumed, Cork piled forward in numbers. Behan was their saviour, getting his head to a free from Neale Fenn and then heading cleanly to the net when he met the rebound.

While Cork won a lot of possession they showed little penetration. Longford had Stephen Paisley, Damien Brennan and Dave Freeman back in action after they had missed last week's cup defeat and they sparked a splendid team performance.

Longford defended and should have scored again in the 71st minute.

Alan Murphy played a ball over the top of the Cork defence and Freeman ran clear for 30 yards only to pull his shot hopelessly wide from 20 yards.

With the pressure mounting all the time on the Longford defence, the scene was set for that dramatic closing sequence and Behan's last-gasp equaliser.

CORK CITY: Devine, Horgan, Bennett, Murray, Murphy, O'Brien, Softic (O'Callaghan, 66 mins), Gamble, Woods (Behan, 74 mins); O'Flynn, Fenn.

LONGFORD TOWN: Kelly; Murphy, Brennan, Paisley, Prunty; Gough, Kirby, Fitzgerald (Baker, 46 mins), Cronin; Freeman (Mooney, 90 mins), Martin.

Referee: D McKeon (Dublin).