Sigerson Cup boost for dogged DCU
It was level at 0-8 each at the end of a smashing first half, but Brady netted three minutes after the restart to edge his side ahead. Longford hit four points in-a-row from Paul Kelly and three from Sean McCormack, but DCU refused to wilt. With 15 minutes remaining Smith’s opportunistic goal put DCU back in control and manager Niall Moyna was encouraged to take another inter-county scalp ahead of their Sigerson Cup first round clash with Cork IT.
“We are very happy because it is always great to beat an inter-county team. Obviously we are at a totally different stage of our preparation compared to where they are so we have a little bit of an advantage.
“Two years ago when we won the Sigerson we had a great run in the O’Byrne Cup and we gave a lot of the panel games. We have a panel of 31 and we are missing some of our big players at the moment.”
Scorers for DCU: J Brady (1-3, 2fs), D Rock (0-3, 1f), D Smith (1-0), G Sweeney (0-2), F O’Curraoin (0-1), D Kelly (0-1), F O’Shea (0-1).
Scorers for Longford: S McCormack (0-8, 4fs), B Kavanagh (0-2), P Kelly (0-1), P Brady (0-1).
DCU: M Boyle (Donegal); L Bree (Sligo), P McMahon (Dublin), E Culligan (Dublin); C Begley (Laois), K Gavin (Westmeath), J Cooper (Dublin); F O’Curraoin (Galway), M McElhinney (Donegal); G Sweeney (Dublin), D Rock (Dublin), F O’Shea (Cork); J Brady (Cavan), J McEneaney (Louth), D Kelly (Sligo). Subs: D Smith (Roscommon for McEneaney (21), P Flynn (Dublin) for O’Shea (36), C Diamond (Dublin) for Rock (45), P Dooney (Monaghan) for Smith (59), D Keenan (Roscommon) for McElhinney (66).
LONGFORD: J McKenna; P Foy, F Battrim, D Reilly; C Smyth, S Mulligan, P Brady; B McElvaney, J Keegan; D Barden, M Quinn, P Kelly; F McGee, S McCormack, B Kavanagh. Subs: JJ Matthews for McGee (25), E Williams for Brady (43), K Diffley for Keegan (55), J McGivney for Kelly (55), D McElligott for McElvaney (62).
Referee: D Maher (Westmeath).
