Longford Town 1
Drogheda Utd 1
Deniese O’Flaherty reports from Bishopsgate
A DANE Massey own goal in the 76th minute helped bottom side Longford Town record their seventh draw of the season. Although it’s a point gained for Longford, they are still looking for a second win of the season and are now six points adrift of ninth place Waterford.
Drogheda move up level on points with Bohemians in fourth place. After putting eight goals past Town in their previous two games it looked like it could be a repeat performance when they took the lead in the 14th minute through Chris Lyons. They couldn’t add to that goal and Town were able to get back into the game 14 minutes from normal time.
At times it was poor and very flat with nothing much for the home supporters to shout about. They did find their voice in the second half as their side started to pile on the pressure.
Chances were at a premium in the opening 10 minutes. Dylan Grimes had a shot for the home side that was deflected out for a corner. Town’s defence weren’t alert in the 14th minute when Luke Heeney swung in a corner from the left and Lyons was able to head home.
The home side tried to get back into the game with defender Joe Manley heading two efforts wide just before the break. Four minutes into the second half and Massey was free to take a shot but his effort went wide.
A Heeney corner in the 53rd minute caused Town problems but Lyons was unable to find the target and minutes later, Mark Doyle’s excellent effort came back off the crossbar, as Drogs pressed to double their lead.
Town manager Daire Doyle decided to ring the changes and introduced three players at the same time to freshen things up. It had the desired effect. Town started to get back into the game and in the 76th minute they levelled matters; Darragh Nugent played the ball to Dylan Grimes, he tried to dink it over the Drogs netminder but it came off the unfortunate Massey and ended up in the net. The industrious Grimes had to go off injured near the end; Town will be hoping it’s nothing too serious.
Boosted by that goal Town went in search of a second with Drogheda hoping to catch them on the break. They very nearly did that in the 88th minute when a cross by James Brown met the head of substitute James Clarke but his effort went wide of the far post.
Longford Town: L Steacy; S Elworthy, J Manley, P Kirk (M O’Brien, 60); D Zambra (A Dobbs, 60), D Nugent; McNally, D Grimes (D Byrne, 85), K Chambers (R Manley, 60); D Williams.
Drogheda Utd: D Odumosu; J Brown, K Phillips, D O’Reilly, D Massey; C Kane, G Deegan, L Heeney (J Hyland, 64), D Markey (J Clarke, 60); M Doyle (M Hughes, 72), C Lyons (D Corcoran, 72).
Referee: R Hennessy (Limerick)