Finn Harps 1 Longford Town 0
Newly promoted Finn Harps emerged victorious on an energy-sapping, rain-sodden Finn Park surface on Saturday night.
Longford had the better of the early exchanges with Philip Gannon shooting just over the target while Richard Brush was forced to make a decent save to deny Josh O'Hanlon.
Harps' best chance before the break fell to David Scully who skipped past Paul Skinner only to see his goal-bound shot whipped away to safety by retreating defender Jamie Mulhall.
Harps piled on the pressure just after the interval with Scully constantly causing problems and Skinner had to be on his guard.
Twice Adam Hanlon squandered chances for Harps as the home side sensed that the midlanders were really wobbling.
Harps deservedly took the lead on the hour when Ethan Boyle was taken down by Daniel O'Reilly inside the box and Ryan Curran duly obliged by slotting in the resulting penalty.
Longford almost equalised on 68 minutes with a cracking Kealon Dillon shot that was just wide.
FINN HARPS: Brush; McNulty, Mailey, Cowan, Coll: Curran (Funston, 89 mins), Boyle, Harkin, Hanlon; McNamee (Foy, 83 mins), Scully (McHugh, 79 mins).
LONGFORD TOWN: Skinner; Hughes, Haverty, O'Reilly, Mulhall; McGlynn (Chambers, 73 mins), Gannon, Dillon (McKeown, 85 mins), Simon; O'Hanlon, O'Sullivan.
Referee: D Tomney (Dublin).
