Longford Town manager Stephen Kenny has refused to blame his players following the abandonment of Saturday's friendly with Brighton and Hove Albion at Flancare Park.

The game ended a minute before half-time when Brighton boss Mickey Adams ordered his English Division Three champions off the pitch after both Longford full-back Alan Murphy and Brighton striker Charlie Oatway were sent off by Leinster Senior League referee, Dermot Tone.

Brighton have cancelled the third match of their Irish tour against Athlone Town scheduled for this evening, and will return home as scheduled tomorrow.

Longford had taken a second-minute lead when Sean Prunty headed them in front.

But by the time Brighton skipper Paul Rogers equalised with a 30-yard shot on 22 minutes, late tackles and nastiness had become a feature of the game.

Brighton, beaten 1-0 by Sligo Rovers on Thursday night, appeared needlessly agitated from very early on.

So much so that Adams had to substitute defender Matthew Wicks and midfielder Richard Carpenter after the two almost came to blows as they argued following a Longford attack.

It all came to a head on 44 minutes following a dreadfully late challenge by Brighton substitute Steve Melton on Longford midfielder Alan Reynolds. The challenge prompted virtually every player on the pitch to get involved in a fracas on the centre of the pitch.

Leinster Senior League referee Tone, officiating because Eircom League referees were attending a seminar, eventually dismissed Murphy and Oatway.

Adams immediately waved his players off the field."We were outplaying them and they couldn't handle that," said Kenny.

"Micky Adams became agitated on the bench and that filtered through to his players. There were a lot of late challenges and unnecessary stuff. The referee didn't abandon the match, they walked off the pitch.

"That type of thing doesn't happen in football in Ireland. I don't understand why it happened. It hasn't happened before and is unlikely to happen again.

"I didn't feel any of my players did anything wrong bar standing their ground. We won the Fair Play Award last season and hadn't a player sent-off in 18 months." Adams refused to comment afterwards.

Meanwhile, Shelbourne's UEFA Cup opponents Brondby continued their impressive start to the season with a 3-1 win away to AB Copenhagen. Dan Anton Johansen, Ruben Bagger and Mads Jorgensen scored for the Danes.

The victory followed last week's 5-0 drubbing of AGF Aarhus.

Elsewhere, goals from Simon Webb and Glen Crowe secured a 2-1 win for Bohemians over last season's English FA Cup heroes, Wycombe Wanderers.