Denis Connerton’s Longford football side defeated IT Carlow by 8 points today in their final group game in the 2017 O’Byrne Cup. Last year’s beaten finalists ran out by 5-11 to 4-06 winners in a game that hardly caught the imagination of the Longford football public with a modest attendance recorded for today’s encounter with the whipping boys in this section. Today’s match was Longford third game in the tournament their run so far included a win over Offaly and defeat to Kildare. At half time an experimental Longford side led by 4-04 to 2-05. The Longford goals were scored by Ronan McIntyre in the 6th minute, Donal McElligot converted a Penalty in the 21st minute, Liam Sullivan found the nett in the 28th minute while Gary Rogers capped off the half with a goal in the 34th minute to help establish a 9 point interval lead.
further goals were scored in the second half when Darren Gallagher netted for the inter-county side in the 44th minute while Carlow IT’s fourth goal came courtesy of Longford under-21 player and Colmcille clubman Colm McCabe. More experienced Longford players were introduced at half-time including Abbeylara’s Robbie Smyth who made a difference and also scored four points to cap off a fine personal display.
Match report from shannonside’s Benny O’Brien
The Longford manager is Denis Connerton and he spoke to Shannonside Fm’s Benny O’Brien after the match to give his reaction. The Rathcline native concluded that it was ‘meaningless fixture’ and added ‘that theres no doubt about it the colleges being in the competition is meaningless’. ‘I don’t how much its bringing them. There was very few at the match and no atmosphere we got a decent score but conceding four goals is very disappointing’.
He added further ‘we are more competitive against intercounty teams and have a great rivalry with them. we’ve nothing in common with college teams and we picked up a lot of injuries. On the question of fitness the home side boss maintained ‘we have a lot of players returning to play and they are not sharp enough yet’. He also promised that with Offaly in the league in 3 weeks time ‘we’ve a multiple of work to do’.
Full interview with Denis Connerton:
