Longford Senior Men travelled to Oak Park in Carlow with their tails up after a big win over Clondalkin last week.
It became one of those days where no matter how hard Longford tried, nothing went to plan.
The weekend did not start off the best with over 20 players out injured or not making themselves available, meaning that Longford second XV could not fulfil their fixture.
Head Coach Glenn Baskett assembled a good squad and hoped that Longford could replicate their attacking prowess of the week before.
The match started off disastrously for Longford, when Carlow quickly got on the front foot. Earned a penalty, kicked into the Longford 22. After mauling the ball from the lineout, spread the ball out wide, to cross for an unconverted try.
Longford came back into the game and earned a kickable penalty, which unfortunately did not go through the posts. Longford continued putting Carlow under pressure and earning a five metre scrum.
However, Longford unfortunately knocked on before crossing the line to relieve the pressure. Longford kept Carlow in their 22 but then got pinged for accidental offside while on the attack and then to add insult to injury, after working a good move at the front of the lineout, knocked the ball on, with the line at their mercy.
You have to take your opportunities against a good team like Carlow, who then worked their way back up the pitch, scoring another unconverted try before half-time to leave Longford starting the second-half with a 10 point deficit.
The half-time talk from Glenn Baskett was surely to cut out the mistakes and up the aggression in defence but unfortunately try as Longford might, it was not enough to turn the tide.
Longford did have their opportunities in the second half, especially with Carlow playing it for 20 minutes with only 14 men due to two yellow cards.
Carlow ran in three more tries to Longford’s one, which was scored by Simon Moorehead, to run out 29-5 winners.
A day to forget. Longford’s focus now turns to an away game versus Tullow in two weeks times, which is a big one for two teams who were aiming towards the top at the start of the season but now find themselves at the lower end of it.
Longford: P O’Farrell, H Connolly (c), D Quinn, F Davos, D Geelan, Aaron Beirne, M McHugh, K O’Gorman, F McGowan, A Wynne, Jj Mimnagh, D McHugh, G McDermott, J McGowan, R McHugh, J Murray,P Dardis, J Geelan, P Molloy, S Moorehead.
