Barden leads the way amid Longford goals

FT: Monaghan 1-17 Longford 4-15, Clones, 4.30pm, after extra time

HT: Monaghan 1-05 Longford 0-06

* Match level at Monaghan 1-15 Longford 2-12 after 70 minutes

Longford rekindled their championship hopes and memories of their February league wins over Kerry and Westmeath as a brace of extra-time goals saw them to their first championship win over Monaghan, 4-15 to 1-17 in an exhaustive qualifier in Clones.

The attendance may have been a good 30,000 lower than that likely here tomorrow for Cavan and Armagh, but there was plenty of value for money throughout an enthralling 90 minutes.

Having been 0-06 to 1-05 down at the break, Longford endured the full swings-and-roundabouts of championship football to eventually pull through on the back of their extra time tally of 2-03 with David Barden and then Trevor Smullen (87 minutes) seeing them to a seven-point win.

Colm Coyle’s Monaghan will be kicking themselves though asn having led at half time and into the final seconds of normal time, each time they threw away their advantage, most notably on full time when man-of-the-match Padraig Davis (0-11, 6f, 1’45) kicked the points that brought Longford back within touching distance, followed on by Liam Keenan’s goal - a low drilled shot through a forest of players and into the Monaghan net.

The home side sprang the traps early with Damien Freeman, set up by brother Tom, finishing to the Longford net on 5 minutes. They went on to hit eight wides in the half however as Davis (0-04) and Paul Barden and Martin Mulleady (0-01 each) played the Leinster men back into the frame.

Barden and Gary McQuaid snapped over points immediately after Freeman’s goal and a brace from Davis saw Longford finish the quarter-hour just a point behind. That’s how it stayed until half time as Rory Woods (0-02, 1f), Tom Freeman (0-01) and Damien Freeman, on 34 minutes, struck Monaghan’s sixth point.

Freeman and Davis exchanged further points after the restart. Then a seismic moment when James Coyle hauled down burly forward Niall Sheridan in the Monaghan area, for Paul Barden to lash home the resulting penalty on 39 minutes for a 1-07 to 1-06 Longford lead.

Monaghan failed to lie down and through sheer persistence grabbed seven of the next nine points to regain the ascendancy on 65 minutes at 1-13 to 1-09. David Barden and Davis hit the Longford points with substitute Ciaran Tavey, on for the influential Woods, grabbing a hat trick of Monaghan scores, McQuaid notching his second point on 43 minutes and the Freemans also adding two more.

Davis, an immense figure up front for Longford, then hit three more surefooted points (2f), cancelling Nicholas Corrigan and Tavey points, and with Keenan’s sudden goal, it was extra time at 1-15 to 2-12. David Barden’s goal three minutes in set up Longford to end the first period five points in front, with Davis and Smullen rallying his troops.

Woods came back onto the field to add a fifteenth Monaghan point, after Corrigan had notched his second, but Longford clinically closed out the win, with Monaghan’s defence on the ropes, and Smullen finishing smartly past Glen Murphy.

Scorers:

Longford - P Davis 0-11 (6fs, 1 '45), P Barden 1-1 (pen), T Smullen 1-1, D Barden, L Keenan 1-0 each, S Lynch, M Mulleady 0-1

Monaghan - D Freeman 1-3, C Tavey 0-4 (2f), R Woods 0-3 (3fs), G McQuaid 0-2, N Corrigan 0-2, T Freeman 0-2, D Duffy 0-1

Referee: M Daly (Mayo)