Longford Town 1 - 0 Waterford United

• Deniese O'Flaherty
• Sun, Apr 17 2011


Don Cowan was the hero at Flancare park on Saturday night as his strike four minutes before the break gave Longford Town a deserved win over Waterford Utd in their Airtricity League First Division clash.

This win moves the Town up to fourth in the table while Waterford remain in 7th spot, eight points behind the leaders Cork City. It was the home side who made the better start here and they were unlucky not to have taken the lead as early as the third minute. Jacques Morley played in Austin Skelly and his powerful drive came crashing back off the crossbar with Waterford keeper Kevin Burns well beaten.

One minute later Longford had calls for a penalty turned down by referee Darren Coombes after Skelly was pushed in the box by ‘Blues’ defender Kevin Murray. The visitors first chance on goal came in the 10th minute, Conor Sinnott with a snapshot that was deflected out for the first corner of the game.  

               Don Cowan saw his ambitious lob bounce wide of the far post in the 11th minute before Willie John Kiely’s header flashed wide of the Longford goal. There was a lull in the game but as we approached the half hour mark both teams had chances to break the deadlock. Waterford had calls for a penalty turned down in the 29th minute when Murray's jersey appeared to have been tugged in the box. And a lovely move from the Town should've seen them open the scoring in the 30th minute. Cowan did all the work and played a super ball into the box which hit the thigh of Mark Salmon and went over.

Four minutes from the break and Cowan did beat Burns. The Waterford defence appeared to stand off the Town striker and he made no mistake with a cracking strike.   

The Town had two further chances to double their lead in quick succession after the break. Cowan hit an excellent shot but Blues keeper Burns brought off a fantastic save to deny the striker from grabbing his second goal.

Just over one minute later and Austin Skelly had a chance but his header came off the post, the second time he had been denied by the woodwork. Waterford began to come more into the game as they went in search of an equaliser. In the final quarter they had two great opportunities to get back on level terms. First Paul Murphy’s shot came off the crossbar and Gary Keane with the follow-up brought a superb save out of Town netminder Paul Hunt.

Ten minutes from time Cowan had another chance but his curling shot from about 20 yards out just went inches wide.

Longford Town: Paul Hunt; Niall O'Reilly, Chris Deans, Des Hope, Gary Cronin; Keith Gillespie (Cathal Brady 64), Mark Salmon, Thomas Hyland, Jacques Morley (Craig Walsh 77); Austin Skelly (Lee Roche), Don Cowan.
?Subs not used: Stephen Conlon, Paddy Collins, Damien O'Reilly, Jason Oladele.?

Waterford United: Kevin Burns; Seamus Long, Michael Coady, Kevin Murray, Kenny Browne; Shane Barrett (Shane Dempsey 46), Conor Sinnott, Gary Keane, Keith Quinn; Willie John Kiely (Michael Rafter 71), Paul Murphy.
?Subs not used: Brian Nolan, Dwayne Wilson, David Breen, Gary Dunphy, Lee Chin.

Referee: Darren Coombes (Dublin).
Extratime man of the match: Don Cowan: Grabbed the only goal of the game and was a menace throughout.