Longford win keeps title race open

Longford Town 4 Shelbourne 1

Shelbourne will have to wait until Friday at least if they are to retain their title after being totally outplayed by Longford in this ill-tempered clash at Flancare Park.

Two first half blunders by Steve Williams twice gifted a dominant Town the lead in an entertaining first half.

Eric Lavine charged down Williams’ attempted clearance on 24 minutes to roll the ball into the empty net for the lead.

Shels hit back with a David Crawley free-kick on 35 minutes. But Dessie Baker raced in behind the Shels’ defence onto Sean Prunty’s header to fire through the legs of Williams to put Town back in front on 38 minutes.

Prunty then added Town’s third on 57 minutes in a lightening counterattack before Shels’ Alan Moore was sent off for striking the Town winger three minutes later.

The drama wasn’t over there as Town keeper Stephen O’Brien saved a 79th minute penalty from Jason Byrne before Alan Kirby added a fourth goal a minute from time.