Longford take early initiative to see off Waterford

Longford 1-12 Waterford 1-10

Longford survived a late Waterford rally to move level on points with Offaly at the top of the Division Four table.

The midland side were 10 points ahead and very much in control but following the dismissal of Waterford midfielder Shane Aherne in the 49th minute the Deise actually seized the initiative and outscored Longford 1-06 to just one point.

Longford had been reduced to 14 men in the 40th minute when Shane Doyle – who had received a yellow in the first half – was shown a black card and subsequently a red one.

It was a game of two halves with Longford completely on top in the first and held a nine-point lead at the break. Francie McGee was very much to the fore for Jack Sheedy's side scoring 1-04, the corner forward's goal came in the 23rd minute and it was a good finish after some fine play from Enda Williams.

After being outplayed in the first half Waterford capitalised on a lot of Longford’s mistakes in the second. When Seán McCormack pointed to put Longford ahead by seven points it looked like they would kick on but they failed to.

A goal from Mark Ferncombe left it a three-point game with four to go and then full forward Paul Whyte put two between them. Try as they might Waterford couldn't add on any more scores as Longford held on for a valuable win.

LONGFORD: P Collum; F Battrim, B O'Farrell, P Foy; CP Smyth, D Masterson, E Williams; B Gilleran, K Diffley; S Doyle (0-1), P McKeon (0-1), R McEntire; B McKeon (0-3, one free), S McCormack (0-3), F McGee (1-4, 0-1 free). Subs: A Rowan for Foy (Black card, 22 mins), M Quinn for R McEntire (44 mins), P Gill for B McKeon (62 mins), M Hughes for McGee (66 mins).

WATERFORD: S Enright; L Lawlor, R O'Ceallaigh, T O'Gorman; T Ó hUallacháin, M O'Gorman, C Phelan; S Aherne (0-1, free), T Prendergast; L Ó Lonáin, M O'Halloran, P Hurney (0-3); M Ferncombe (1-3), P Whyte (0-2, one free), JJ Hutchinson. Subs: O Keevers for Phelan (17 mins), S Briggs for Ó hUallacháin (black card, 32 mins), J Veale (0-1) for Ó Lonáin (half-time), G Nugent for O'Halloran (39 mins).

Referee: Shane Hehir (Galway).