It was all smiles at Bishopsgate on Sunday afternoon as Longford Town MU17 won their LOI Academy MU17 Tier Two (North) Group with 2 games to spare with a marvellous 2-1 win over Finn Harps.
De Town survived an earlier scare within a matter of seconds of the start, a mistake at the back allowed Harps striker Guilherme Tavares De Morais through on goal but a strong save from Town goalkeeper Matthew Onome denied the opener for Finn Harps. Longford grew into the game and were rewarded in the 5th minute when Jacob Norton Flood’s timely run was rewarded when he snuck the ball under the goalkeeper to give Conor Frawley’s men the lead. It got better from there for De Town and in the 11th minute Aaron Kelly took his chance brilliantly to the delight of the crowd in the Bishopsgate stand.
Finn Harps began to threaten and just before half-time pulled one back from a brilliantly struck free kick by Conor Gibson from 25 yards. It remained 2-1 going into the break.
The second half started off sloppy from both teams with Harps having two men going into the book for two separate incidents within the first ten minutes of the second half. De Town started to feel the pressure towards the last third of the game and a number of shots and crosses from Finn Harps were well defended by Longford Town’s defence. Harps were however reduced down to 10 men before the end of time, Emmanuel Mensah ran clear through on goal before being taken down by Josh Cullen, he had already been booked for an earlier offence and was shown a second yellow by referee James Murray.
However, it wasn’t to end there as De Town were also reduced to 10 men in the 88th minute, goalscorer Jacob Nortan Flood was shown a second yellow card for bouncing the ball of a Finn Harps player back which caused an outrage around the ground and in De Town’s dugout.
Despite all the pressure, goalkeeper Matthew Onome did excellently in the 14 minutes of added time that was played along with his defence. The game finally ended in the 104th minute of the game with both sets of players on their feet from the period of time played. De Town’s MU17 bench emptied to congratulate each other on confirming a home semi-final for the team and even took time to celebrate with their manager Conor Frawley and soaking him with water.
The team have 2 normal group games remaining against Derry City and Athlone Town. The Semi-Final will be at home against the team that finishes 2nd in the South group.