League Report: Galway United 2 - 0 Longford Town

Galway United extended their winning streak to four games on Monday evening when they ran out 2-0 winners over Longford Town at Eamonn Deacy Park.

David Hurley opened the scoring with his third goal of the season shortly after the half time break before Max Hemmings put the result beyond doubt with twenty minutes to go with his first goal for the Tribesmen.

John Caulfield made three changes to the side that came from two goals down to beat Treaty United 3-2 on Friday night.

Max Hemmings, Francely Lomboto and Gary Boylan all made the starting line-up after impressing when they came off the bench during Friday’s win, Conor O’Keeffe, Ed McCarthy and Manu Dimas all dropped to the bench.

Longford Town had two changes from their heavy 4-1 loss to Cork City on Friday nigh with Michael Barker and Darren Craven both making way for Karl Chambers and Michael McDonnell.

The home side went close in the opening five minutes with Alex murphy inches away from doubling his tally for the season when Killian Brouder flung a long throw in from the right. The flight of the ball fooled everyone in the box with Murphy meeting it at close range but failing to make a good connection and sending it inches over the crossbar.

De Town went closest early on however, a decent break by the visitors in the tenth minute ended with Shane Elworthy swinging a great cross into the box from the right flank, Ryan Graydon was there to meet it in the box and but for the fingertips of goalkeeper Conor Kearns they would have been a goal up.

Kearns was called upon ten minutes later when Dean McMenamy raced forward in the Galway half, he broke the challenge of Killian Brouder and took the ball into the box before rifling off a shot with the goalkeeper just managing to tip it behind for a corner.

The Tribesmen had the ball in the net just before the half hour mark when McCarthy broke away before passing to Stephen Walsh deep in the Longford box. Walsh’s shot was stopped on the line with Wilson Waweru pouncing to turn it in, but the linesman’s flag was up immediately to rule the goal offside.

Ed McCarthy came off the bench in the first half to replace Francely Lomboto, presumably for tactical reasons and the move paid off when the midfielder weaved through the Longford defence before flicking the ball beyond Michael McDonnell and drawing a foul in the box in the 50^th minute.

Referee David Dunne pointed to the spot immediately and David Hurley dispatched a rocket into the left side of the corner having sent goalkeeper Luke Dennison the wrong way.

United doubled their lead in the 73^rd minute from a dangerous Conor McCormack free kick, the Tribesmen’s captain swung the ball into the box from the left hand side, a Longford defender got a head to it at the far post but it fell to Max Hemmings who swung on it first time sending the ball into the bottom corner through a crowded goal mouth.

Hemmings nearly turned provider in the 83^rd minute when he held up possession on the right wing, the Tribesmen pushed forward as the Englishman drifted a cross into the box, Brouder rose to meet it but his header skipped inches wide of the post.

Kearns pulled off his greatest save of the evening in the 90^th minute when De Town won a free kick on the edge of the area. Ryan Graydon struck a near perfect effort on goal and the ball looked destined for the top left corner only for the Galway shot stopper to leap across the goal at full stretch to deny the midfielder.

Galway United: Conor Kearns; Killian Brouder, Max Hemmings, Alex Murphy, Diego Portilla; Gary Boylan (Conor O'Keeffe, 70), David Hurley (Charlie Lyons, 85), Conor McCormack; Francely Lomboto (Edward McCarthy 23), Stephen Walsh (Jordan Adeyemo, 85), Wilson Waweru (Ronan Manning, 70).

Subs not used: Matthew Connor, Ben Molloy, Evan O'Connor, Manu Dimas.

Booked: None.

Longford Town: Luke Dennison; Ben Lynch, Shane Elworthy, Dylan Barnett; Aaron Robinson, Eric Molloy (Joe Power, 85), Dean McMenamy, Michael McDonnell, Ryan Graydon (Cristian Magerusan, 90), Karl Chambers (Matthew O'Brien, 85); Sam Verdon.

Subs not used: Lee Steacy, Adam Hayden, Michael Barker, Matthew Dunne, Joe Doyle.

Booked: Ryan Graydon (75), Dean McMenamy (78), Dean McMenamy (82), Cristian Magerusan (90).

Sent off: Dean McMenamy.

Referee: David Dunne.

Attendance: 3,000 (estimate)

extratime.com Player of the Match: Conor McCormack (Galway United)