Wexford Youths 2 Longford Town 0
A first league goal of the season from Jonny Bonner coupled with a late Paul Murphy penalty gave Wexford Youths a fully deserved victory in the battle of the bottom two at Ferrycarrig Park.
Though they remain in the relegation play-off spot, two points behind Bray Wanderers, the win greatly boosts Shane Keegan side’s survival hopes.
Conversely, now eight points adrift at the foot of the table, and ten off safety, on this poor showing Longford look in real trouble.
Last week’s 5-0 drubbing by Sligo Rovers saw Youths boss Keegan make three changes as full-back Gary McCabe, midfielder Aidan Keenan and winger Eric Molloy came into his staring eleven.
Longford brought the pace and energy of Don Cowan back into their side on the right flank with Jamie Mulhall coming in at right-back as Noel Haverty shifted across to play in central defence.
Youths started the better with their early pressure resulting in Danny Furlong, picked out by O’Keeffe’s excellent diagonal ball, bringing a fourth minute save from Ryan Coulter.
On the back foot from the start, Longford finally got out of their own half on 13 minutes with Mark Hughes drilling in a shot from distance that scarcely bothered Graham Doyle.
But Youths remained in command with central defender Gary Delaney heading wide from Murphy’s corner before their deserved lead arrived on 34 minutes.
Haverty fouled Keenan some 25 yards from goal. A training ground routine kicked in for the resulting set-piece as Furlong made a dummy run to the right of the defensive wall for Bonner to curl a delightful effort up and over it to the net with Coulter rooted to the spot.
Youths should have added to their lead by the interval with Furlong having a shot deflected for a corner from which Stephen Last powered a free header over the Longford crossbar.
Barely in the match, Longford were then close to snatching an unlikely equaliser in first half stoppage time, Eddie Dsane blazing over the bar from Mulhall’s ball in from the right.
Longford initially had a little more about them from the restart, enjoying an early spell of pressure without troubling Doyle in the home goal.
But it was Youths who came within inches of doubling their lead on 61 minutes.
Bonner's excellent delivery from a corner found Last who brought a tip over save from Coulter.
Just two minutes later, Longford really should have been level from a counterattack.
Substitute Kevin O’Connor put Dsane in one-on-one with Doyle only for the striker to balloon his shot over the top.
Coulter had to come to town’s rescue back at the other end on 71 minutes, brilliantly touching Bonner’s drive round a post.
In late drama, Coulter was sent off in stoppage time for pulling down Murphy who ran clear following a mistake by Yann Mvita.
Central defender Mvita went in goal, but could do nothing as Murphy coolly slotted home from the resulting penalty.
Wexford Youths: Graham Doyle; Conor O’Keeffe, Gary Delaney, Stephen Last, Craig McCabe; Eric Molloy (Andy Mulligan h-t), Jonny Bonner, Lee Grace, Aidan Keenan (Chris Kenny 85); Paul Murphy, Danny Furlong (Aidan Friel 88).
Longford Town: Ryan Coulter; Jamie Mulhall, Noel Haverty, Yann Mvita, Conor Powell; Don Cowan (Gaius Makouta 63), Philip Gannon (Kealan Dillon 87), Mark Hughes (Kevin O’Connor h-t), Kaleem Simon; David O’Sullivan, Eddie Dsane.
Referee: Ben Connolly (Dublin).
