Wexford Youths 0-2 Longford Town
Kevin O’Connor and Josh O’Hanlon scored early and late to spoil Wexford Youths’ opening night in the Airtricity League Premier Division.
Youths’ manager Shane Keegan had stressed before a ball had been kicked at Ferrycarrig Park that his side needed to be better defensively this year if they were to make a fist of staying up.
But any best laid plans in that department were shattered, with the Wexford side’s hopes for a positive start to their top flight stay dashed as they fell behind to a soft goal on six minutes.
Caught napping at a throw-in on the left, they were duly punished.
Town midfielder O’Connor collected the ball to cut past his marker to make time and space for himself on the edge of the area before drilling a low drive to the bottom near corner of the Youths’ skipper Graham Doyle’s net.
The home side recovered well from that early setback and were close to an equaliser ten minutes later.
Jonny Bonner fed Eric Molloy who turned smartly inside the area to bring a fine diving save from Paul Skinner.
Six minutes later, home midfielder Chris Kenny wasn’t far off target with an overhead kick as Youths pressed to get back into it.
Kenny was there again to loop a header just over the top after Skinner flapped at Craig McCabe’s long throw.
But Youths survived a real scare on 26 minutes. David O’Sullivan’s shot came back off defender Gary Delaney to fall for Kaleem Simon, whose deflected effort trickled past a post for a corner.
Youths dominated from the resumption, Molloy signalling their intent when cutting across the edge of the area to shoot over the top.
Danny Furlong, last season’s 30-goal topscorer, came alive on 58 minutes when glancing his header from Aidan Friel’s corner narrowly wide.
The Youths’ talisman was then left thumping the ground in frustration on 64 minutes as he blazed over the top after a sweeping move cut Longford open.
Furlong did have the ball in the Town net on 89 minutes, but had been well flagged for offside.
Two minutes later Longford sealed their win.
O’Sullivan slipped strike-partner O’Hanlon through on goal and he held off Gary Delaney before blasting to the net.
Wexford Youths: Graham Doyle; Craig McCabe, Gary Delaney, Lee Grace, Ryan Delaney (Danny Ledwith 81); Aidan Friel, Chris Kenny, Jonny Bonner, Eric Molloy (Andy Mulligan 65); Danny Furlong, Paul Murphy.
Longford Town: Paul Skinner; Mark Hughes, Noel Haverty, Mark Rossiter, Conor Powell; David O’Sullivan, Kevin O’Connor, Philip Gannon, Kaleem Simon; Kealan Dillon (Jamie Mulhall 65), Josh O’Hanlon.
Referee: Dave McKeon (Dublin).
