Longford earn valuable point but remain rooted to the bottom

Longford Town 2 Sligo Rovers 2

A goal on his home debut from Eddie Dsane earned bottom-of-the-table Longford Town a point as they twice came behind at City Calling Stadium.

Though Sligo started on the front foot, Longford were twice gifted chances from mistakes which they failed to avail of.

The visitors remained the better side, though, and deservedly took the lead on 31 minutes.

Jimmy Keohane fed Liam Martin on the left whose cross was powered to the net by Raffaele Cretaro with a stunning header for his fifth goal of the season and his 75th in total for the club.

Longford responded well to level three minutes before the interval.

The marking from Kaleem Simon’s corner was non-existent as Rhys Gorman swept the ball to the roof of the net.

Sligo regained the lead eight minutes into the second half when a foul by Noel Havery on Kieran Sadlier was clinically punished.

Phil Roberts stepped up to curl the free kick over the wall and to the net for his first goal for the club.

But another mistake at the back by Sligo, this time from Gary Boylan, let Dsane in to calmly side foot home Longford’s second equaliser on 65 minutes.

Sligo might have snatched victory in stoppage time, but substitute Daniel Kearns shot wide from Sadlier’s cross.

Longford Town: Coulter; Haverty, Nkelu, Gorman, Powell; McGlynn (O'Sullivan, 66), Dillon (J. Mulhall, 75), Hughes, Simon; Cowan (Duffy, 87), Dsane.

Sligo Rovers: Schlingermann; Adeyabyo-Rowling, Peers, Boylan, Keohane; Roberts (Kearns, 63), Roddan, Russell, Martin; Sadlier; Cretaro.

Referee: Derek Tomney (Dublin).