St Pat’s and Longford share spoils after second half thriller

St Patrick’s Athletic 3 Longford Town 3

St Pat’s and Longford Town shared the spoils after a cracking game at Richmond Park that saw all six goals come in the second half.

Longford started well and thought they had taken the lead on 11 minutes. A wonderful team move involving Philip Gannon and Kaleem Simon ended with Lee Duffy curling a cracking effort of Pat’s goalkeeper Brendan Clarke and into the back of the net but it was ruled out for offside.

On 24 minutes, the raised arm of Pat’s defender Darren Dennehy blocked a shot from David O’Sullivan just outside the penalty area. Referee Robert Harvey awarded a free which was taken by Gannon but the Pat’s wall stood firm. Dennehy was involved again on 32 minutes when he made a vital intervention to prevent Simon from getting his shot on target.

The second half was just 30 or so seconds old when Town took the lead. David O’Sullivan pulled the ball back on the goal line and set up Philip Gannon, whose shot from the edge of the box coasted past Clarke at his right hand post. But the lead lasted only three minutes before Pat’s equalised on 49 minutes. Sam Verdon climbed high at the back post and headed in from Billy Dennehy’s corner to get Pat’s right back in it.

Longford took the lead again on 63 minutes. Conor Powell made a brilliant run from inside his own half and met a Kevin O’Connor pass before curling an inch-perfect shot into the bottom left corner. Pat’s were level again on 73 when sub Conan Byrne met Ger O’Brien’s pass and sent a low drive past the diving Ian Molloy.

O’Sullivan scored from the spot on 87 minutes after Darren Dennehy took down Simon in the box. Dennehy got a second yellow and was dismissed but O’Sullivan’s penalty struck the crossbar. Referee Harvey ordered it to be retaken due to encroachment and this time O’Sullivan made no mistake. Pat’s then went back up the other end from the restart and Jamie McGrath slammed in the equaliser on 89 minutes.

St Patrick's Athletic: Clarke; O'Brien, Hoare, D Dennehy, Bermingham (Desmond 40 mins); Cawley (Byrne 71 mins); Timlin, McEleney (Tracey h/t), Verdon, B Dennehy; McGrath.

Longford Town: Molloy; J Mulhall, Flynn, Rossiter, Noack-Hofmann, Powell; Gannon, O'Connor (Dillon 76 mins), Simon, Duffy (O'Hanlon 55 mins); O'Sullivan.

Referee: Robert Harvey (Dublin)