Longford Town 1-1 Bray Wanderers
Bray Wanderers secured their first point of the season as Dean Kelly returned to score against his former club.
One of the few talking points of a dreadfully poor game, however, was a freakish goal for Longford as they finished with ten men at the City Calling Stadium for the second time this season.
Bray, with three changes from their home defeat to Derry City last Monday, had the better of a dour first half in which chances were at a premium.
Visiting midfielder Dylan Connolly firing wide on 20 minutes was the highlight before Longford had the only effort on target before the interval when Josh O’Hanlon headed David O’Sullivan’s cross straight at Peter Cherrie in added time.
Thankfully, the game finally sprung to life within a minute of the restart when Bray took the lead.
A cross in from the left by Jason Marks was flicked on by Karl Moore for striker Kelly, who spent the seocnd half of last season at Longford, to head home.
A candidate for most bizarre goal of the season saw Longford level four minutes later.
There appeared little danger as Cherrie came to clear a back pass.
But the Bray keeper’s attempted clearance was shot straight at the back of Longford striker O’Sullivan with the ball cannoning back into the unguarded net.
Longford finished with ten men when midfielder Kevin O’Connor was sent off on 79 minutes for a foul on Robbie Creevy, his second booking.
Longford Town: Paul Skinner; Jamie Mulhall, Pat Flynn, Mark Rossiter (Daniel O’Reilly 10), Conor Powell (Kealan Dillon 70); Philip Gannon; David O’Sullivan (Peter McGlynn 88), Mark Hughes, Kevin O’Connor, Kaleem Simon; Josh O’Hanlon.
Bray Wanderers: Peter Cherrie; Hugh Douglas, Alan McNally, Conor Kenna, Jason Marks; Dylan Connolly (Sean Noble 89), Robbie Creevy (Mark Salmon 81), Ryan Brennan, Karl Moore; Dean Kelly, Andrew Lewis (Ger Pender 77).
Referee: Ben Connolly (Dublin)
