Flat and toothless students caught out

Just over a week ago a doctor might have been better qualified than Martin Moran to explain the reasons behind UCD's defeat at Dalymount Park, where a goalkeeper stricken with back problems and a handful of other key players suffering from flu contributed heavily to a disappointingly flat display.

But at Belfield yesterday the ailments were all of the footballing variety, and Moran sounded like a man who was sure of his post-match diagnosis when he described his side's performance as "simply shocking".

The key problem, he observed as his players wandered forlornly about him, had been the abysmal attempts at finishing produced by a side that, having notched up eight in the four league games before the trip to Phibsborough, had convinced us prematurely that they had regained the knack of scoring.

Two of those eight goals had come from Eoin Bennis, but no amount of encouragement from the home side's midfield yesterday could persuade the young striker to build on his recent run. And after it became apparent that this was not to be Bennis' day in front of goal, several of his team-mates did their utmost to demonstrate that it wasn't going to be theirs either.

When Stephen O'Brien was finally called upon to make a save - 12 minutes from time when Ken Kilmurray's header looked en route to the top right hand corner - he made it brilliantly. But given the balance of possession over the course of the game, even he must have been surprised not to be called upon for much else than a few well-timed, sweeping interventions on the edge of his area.

All of which might have been easier to bear for the manager had it not been for the fact that first minute clumsiness on the part of Barry Ryan and his central defenders had gifted Longford a goal which Stephen Gavin had slipped away with no problem whatsoever.

The blunder meant the students were immediately chasing a game that had always promised to be challenging, against a team that has proven recently to be about the most lively in the division.

Sure enough, as the Dubliners started to crank up the search for an equaliser in the run-up to half-time, they conceded a second. This one lacked the poor clearance from Ryan, but was almost a replica of the first otherwise with Keith O'Connor, instead of Wesley Byrne, providing the lethal ball through the centre and Shay Zellor, instead of Gavin, the calmly-placed shot.

Not that that was by any means the end of it, and Longford manager Stephen Kenny admitted his players had, once again, "lived dangerously out there". Even with Ciaran Martyn joining the attack, though, the locals couldn't force the goal that would at least have given the sizeable visiting support an anxious wait for the final whistle.

Immediately after O'Brien's save from Kilmurray, Tony McDonnell sent another header crashing off the underside of the bar, but, crucially, the ball stayed out again.

To their credit, the students plugged away, but to Longford's they battled every inch of the way to hold what they had. Even after losing their left back, and then the man who replaced him, to injury, they clung on against a side powered from the back by Clive Delaney and in midfield by Ciaran Kavanagh, but one which, ultimately, lacked bite up front.

While Moran reflected on the failure of a fifth successive home game to produce a victory, the visiting directors beamed about being "another three points closer to survival". The public caution was understandable, but they hardly had the look of men who were still thinking in terms of scrapping it out at the wrong end of the table.

UCD: Ryan; McLaughlin, Delaney, McAuley (Kilmurray, 62 mins), Mahon (Ryan, 77 mins); Martyn, Kavanagh, McDonnell, O'Donnell (Quinn, half-time); Bennis, O'Byrne.

Longford Town: O'Brien; Kenny, Smith, McNally, W Byrne (Notaro, 72 mins); Gavin (Holt, 82 mins), Kelly, S Byrne, Coyle (V Perth, 91 mins); O'Connor, Zellor.

Referee: E Barr (Waterford).