Louth and Longford played out the first draw of this year's Bank of Ireland Football Championship as the Wee County staged a second-half comeback to avoid a repeat of last year's first round exit to the same opponents at Navan. Trailing by seven points at one stage in the second-half, Paddy Carr's men kept Longford scoreless for the final 19 minutes as they recovered from a disappointing first-half to force a 1-14 to 2-11 draw.
The only highlight of a disjointed first-half was a Longford goal after six minutes, when Paul Barden blasted a great shot to the net after six minutes following a sweeping move from deep inside their own half. Longford dominated the opening exchanges thanks largely to the prompting of Padraig Davis and were well worth their 1-05 to 0-04 lead after 25 minutes.
However, a brief Louth recovery saw points from Christy Grimes, Colin Quinn and Mark Stansfield reduce the deficit to just one point, but Longford hit back with points from Enda and David Barden to one from Ollie McDonnell to lead 1-7 to 0-08 at the interval.
Longford's second goal came from a Trevor Smullen punch on 43 minutes and when they took a seven point lead after 55 minutes the game seemed as good as over. However, JP Rooney gave Louth a glimmer of hope with a goal on 56 minutes and subsequent points from David Reilly, Rooney and Stansfield and a leveller in injury time from McDonnell sent this fixture back to Longford next Sunday.
Filed by Shane Murray
