Galway United 1 Longford Town 2
Aodh Dervin capped a man-of-the-match display with a cracking goal at the UCD Bowl to seal Longford Town’s passage through to the promotion/relegation playoff final.
Daire Doyle’s midlanders will now meet the side that finishes second bottom of the Premier Division next Saturday night, at a venue to be confirmed after Monday’s final round of top tier games, to decide which of them plays in the top flight next year.
Unchanged from their dramatic extra-time win at the same venue against UCD last week, Longford enjoyed plenty of the ball early on.
And it was no surprise that it was Galway’s Micheal Schlingermann who was the first goalkeeper to see action seven minutes in, parrying a stinging drive from Aaron McNally before gathering.
Longford maintained the pressure with the frame of the Galway goal depriving them of a 15th minute lead.
Mick McDonnell set up Dylan Grimes whose stunning right-footed curling shot cannoned back off the angle of the crossbar and post before being cleared.
Oozing confidence now, Longford midfielder Dervin struck a shot from all of 40 yards that wasn’t far wide of Schlingermann’s left-hand post.
Save for a flicked header from Galway’s Mikey Place that scarcely troubled Lee Steacy, Longford remained much the better side, fully deserving of the lead when it arrived on 43 minutes.
A fine passing move saw the ball worked to Rob Manley who in turn spread it wide left to McNally.
The winger’s cross took a slight deflection to flummox Schlingermann who fumbled the ball through his hands to give Karl Chambers a simple tap-in.
Galway made two changes ahead of the restart with Conor Barry and Wilson Waweru replacing Timmy Molloy and Enda Curran.
And though they saw more of the ball, John Caulfield’s side laboured to create openings.
Dervin then struck to seal Longford’s win on 81 minutes.
Collecting Dylan Grimes’ pass, he took a touch before striking a right-foot shot from distance that bounced in front of the diving Schlingermann to enter the corner of his net.
Galway got a goal back on 88 minute when Steacy’s punch from Duggan’s diagonal ball into the Town area struck the head of United’s Killian Brouder and bounced into the net.
Galway United: Schlingermann; Lynch, Nugent, Brouder, Ludden; Warde (Faherty, 85), Molloy (Barry, h-t), Duggan; Place (Ubaezuonu, 54), Curran (Waweru, h-t), Doherty (Lombato, 79).
Longford Town: Steacy; McDonnell, Gorman, J. Manley; Zambra, Dervin; Elworthy, Chambers (O'Brien, 73), Grimes (Hand, 86), McNally (Banres, 86); R. Manley.
Referee: Mark Moynihan (Dublin).
