Longford dig deep to end hoodoo

Leinster SFC First Round/ Longford 2-13 Westmeath 1-13: Anyone who had felt yesterday's midland derby at Pearse Park was a disappointingly low-key choice to open the 2007 Bank of Ireland Leinster football championship would presumably have been sighing their gloomy "told you so's" at half-time.

But in what turned out to be a cracking first match of the season, Longford staged a dazzling rally to overturn an eight-point interval deficit and record a first provincial championship victory in six years.

Westmeath were dismayed at the way their authority evaporated after a first half in which their more elevated National League standing looked to be reflected in the proceedings.

The match had been flagged as a contest between two lively forward units so the battle for possession was going to be important. For many, Westmeath's centrefield pairing of Martin Flanagan and David O'Shaughnessy had the potential edge to go with a more solid-looking defence.

That's how it panned out in the first half with Longford briefly recovering from a bad start but enduring an even worse second quarter during which some calamitous defending appeared to have put the match beyond the home team.

But a devastating 2-2 scoring burst without reply in the first 10 minutes after the break reignited the match and delivered a tightly-balanced and hugely enjoyable second half with some excellent early ball attacking and plenty of slick movement from both sides.

Westmeath's downfall was the reliance on Des Dolan and Denis Glennon who between them pillaged eight points from play but the lack of support was evident in the replacement of the other four starting forwards. Only three points were scored in the second half and Longford deserved their win.

Brian Kavanagh, an All Star nomination last year, showed he wasn't experiencing any difficulties dealing with the expectations created and won the television man of the match award after notching 2-6, all but four points from play.

But there were other big contributors. David Hannify won a heap of ball in the second half until being withdrawn with a hamstring injury on the hour and attacked well from centre back, even scoring a point.

Paddy Dowd went from playing as a deep-lying full forward in the first half to conventional centrefielder, replacing the injured Liam Keenan, after half-time and ran himself ragged up and down the field. Throughout the match, and for much of it in a beleaguered full-back line, left-corner back Declan Reilly was very prominent intercepting ball all around the defence and linking effectively to set up attacking movement.

The exuberant scenes that greeted the final whistle were a long way off in the first half. Westmeath started ablaze with excellent forward movement and slick attacks that concluded with Glennon, Dolan and O'Shaughnessy all getting early scores to put the team four points ahead inside four minutes.

This was the first crisis Longford had to resolve and they succeeded surprisingly easily, knocking off four points of their own starting when McElvaney eventually scored after what seemed an interminable bout of passing and continuing with frees from Kavanagh and a point from Keenan.

Westmeath regained the lead after Alan Mangan broke up a Longford move and initiated a move that was finished by the impressive Glennon, who repeated the dose two minutes later and by the 19th minute Dolan had extended the lead back to three points, 0-7 to 0-4.

The suspected killing blow by Tomás Ó Flatharta's team came on 24 minutes in circumstances that must have nearly derailed Longford's morale. Dolan's 45 dropped into the goalmouth where Diarmuid Masterson fumbled the ball allowing Flanagan nip in and punch the ball into the net.

There could have been other goals but Glennon and Dolan managed to over-run one chance between them whereas the former had another chance near the half-hour mark only to shoot straight at Damien Sheridan in the Longford goal.

By now Longford were drifting badly and at the half-time whistle they trailed by eight, 0-5 to 1-10. Back in the dressingroom manager Luke Dempsey's basic message was to go out and play to nearer their potential than they had been managing up to that point but to the neutral observer the match looked over.

David Barden, reprieved from suspension to play but surprisingly left off the starting 15, had come on in place of Keenan whose shoulder injury kept him on the bench for the second half.

The comeback was all the more extraordinary for the swiftness with which it reeled in the visitors. Within two minutes replacement Barden's acutely-angled dropping shot was kept from going over the bar by Gary Connaughton only for Kavanagh to nip in and box the ball to the net.

Paul Barden's free had halved the half-time deficit when his brother David declined a point and tried to chip the goalkeeper only for Connaughton to block the kick. A minute later there was only a point in it after Paul Barden's fine long kick placed Kavanagh for a run on goal from the left. The finish was deliberate and precise into the bottom right-hand corner.

Despite the vast disparity in the momentum of the two teams Westmeath kept bobbing ahead by a point and had to be pegged back three times and it was the 58th minute before Hannify's raid from centre back to finish off a four-man move yielded the point that gave the home side the lead for the first time.

There was no way back for Westmeath and when a hopefully-hit free at the very end threatened one of those pinball goals and a possible replay it was Paul Barden who went highest to claim the ball and escort it to safety.

Longford next face Laois in Tullamore on the Bank Holiday weekend.