Longford Town 0 Bohemians 1
An early Kurtis Byrne strike gave Bohemians victory at City Calling Stadium as Longford finished with 10 men leaving them four points adrift at the foot of the Premier Division table.
It gets no easier for Tony Cousins’ beleaguered side as next up is a trip to champions Dundalk on Tuesday night.
Shocking defending gifted Bohemians what would prove the game’s only goal inside two minutes.
A through ball wasn’t cut out, leaving Byrne clean through on goal to gleefully fire a left foot shot past Paul Skinner at his near post.
David O’Sullivan’s hard running sprung Longford to life when he created their first attack of the game on 28 minutes; the striker nutmegging Dan Byrne to set up Philip Gannon who brought a fine tip-over save from Dean Delany.
A minute later Noel Haverty was just over the top of the visitors’ crossbar with a firm header from Kealan Dillon’s superb cross from the right.
Having upped the tempo on the restart, Longford’s Kaleem Simon shot wide with his back to goal eight minutes in.
Gannon and Mark Hughes had further chances for the home side before they were reduced to 10 men on 73 minutes.
Substitute Don Cowan could have no complaints as he saw a straight red for a dreadful challenge on Bohemians’ captain Derek Pender.
Longford Town: Skinner; Haverty, Gorman, O'Reilly (C. Mulhall, 75); Dillon, Gannon (McGlynn, 85), O'Connor, Hughes, Powell; Simon, O'Sullivan (Cowan, h-t).
Bohemians: Delany; Hayes, Prendergast, D. Byrne, Pender; P. Kavanagh (Wearen, 89), Fitzgerald (Ben Mohamed, 65), Lopes, K. Byrne (Quigley 85); Buckley; Akinade.
Referee: Jim McKell (Tipperary).
