Graft and craft get Limerick through

Monday, July 16, 2012

This was a gripping game that ebbed and flowed throughout and eventually ended in a merited Limerick success.

But Longford departed the championship with arguably the worst sporting feeling of the lot: reflecting on what might have been.

For Limerick, this win was achieved with a potent mixture of graft and craft. The work ethic was admirable from early on as Longford were never allowed attain their usual running fluency.

Maurice Horan had planned sensibly, with Paudie Browne giving the defence a dig out to keep his side solid throughout. In extra-time Limerick had the legs and the skill to scorch clear.

None of that made it easy to take for Glenn Ryan.

“I would say it’s our worst 90 minutes of football.

“We finished the game the way we started. We began very flat and unfortunately we finished very flat.

“Throughout the afternoon we felt we never got to the same level as we did in previous performances.

“I don’t want to make excuses, but we have encountered a lot of tough physical games this year and with a small bunch of players it was always going to be hard to repeat the success week in week out. We played 14 competitive games this year so maybe that was a factor too.”

Nobody could argue with Ryan’s assessment because Longford were never fluid, even though a Niall Mulligan goal helped them go in 1-5 to 0-7 ahead at the interval.

Limerick had offered glimpses of their potential, but with six minutes of normal time remaining still trailed by three.

Points from the effective Johnny McCarthy, Ian Ryan and substitute Mike Sheehan had them level before Seanie McCormack, outstanding for Longford, nudged the locals ahead again. The speedy Derry O’Connor forced extra-time and Limerick seized the initiative.

With Limerick bright and busy, Longford had Declan Reilly and replacement David Barden dismissed on 85 and 89 minutes. Limerick’s triumph was confirmed when O’Connor blasted an insurance goal and Horan, who took the maximum out of his resources, was delighted to register a victory.

“Longford are a very good team,” he said.

“They have one of the best records in the country this year. People might not know that, but they have only lost one competitive game. I think Cork have lost more.

“Losing the Munster semi-final to Clare was a disaster for us. We had five weeks to lick our wounds. The boys are so proud that we turned it around. We couldn’t let that loss against Clare define our year.”

Over the past five weeks Limerick took crumbs of comfort ahead of this trip to Longford to help cleanse the Clare loss from the system.

“We kept trying to come around the fact that we lost that game to Clare, it was a gradual process. Small things counted for us. When we had a good training session that helped our focus and we started putting the blocks back together one by one,” was what a thrilled Horan reckoned.

For Longford, Ryan will take time to deliberate whether or not he will remain on as manager.

“No it is too soon to make any decisions. It is a hard defeat to take because I still think we are capable of going further in the championship.

“Unfortunately, we didn’t seem to have any spark in our legs at all. Even during the week the management team were conscious of that fact. In training we tried to keep the lads fresh but for some reason our energy levels dipped during the contest against Limerick.”

For the winners, Stephen Lucey was happy they pinched a victory rather than suffering another harrowing reversal.

“At half-time we came in and were a point down and some of us were nearly patting one another on the back. Stephen Kelly said that he would rather be taken off after five minutes and win, but we battled back. Longford did well and fair play to them, but the young lads that came in for us showed great composure.”

Scorers for Longford: S McCormack 0-8 (4fs), F McGee 0-4, N Mulligan 1-0, P Barden 0-2, D Barden 0-1.

Scorers for Limerick: I Ryan 0-5 (3fs), D O’Connor 1-2, I Corbett, E O’Connor 0-3 each, S Buckley 0-2, S Kelly, S Lucey, J McCarthy, M Sheehan, S O’Carroll, B Scanlon (45) 0-1 each.

Subs for Longford: D Barden for Keegan (36), P McCormack for McElligott (36), P Foy for McElvaney (60), N Farrell for Smyth (70), JJ Matthews for Kavanagh (78), B McElvaney for N Mulligan (86).

Subs for Limerick: M Sheehan for Lane (36), I Corbett for O’Dwyer (54s), D Quaid for Lucey (65), B O’Brien for Donovan (66), D O’Connor for Kelly (68), E Barry for O’Meara (74).

Referee: P Hughes (Armagh).

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