Sport

Longford are on a roll

Longford 1-23 Tipperary 1-10: After running Dublin so close in the Leinster Championship at the same venue, Longford continued…

Mon Jul 03 2006 - 01:00

Longford 1-23 Tipperary 1-10: After running Dublin so close in the Leinster Championship at the same venue, Longford continued their progress in the All-Ireland qualifiers with this 13-point win over Tipperary in front of a crowd of 3,000 at Pearse Park on Saturday.

Longford led by five points at the break, 1-9 to 0-7, corner forward David Barden having capitalised on a blunder in the Tipp defence to blast the ball to the roof of the net on 12 minutes.

The ever-dangerous Barden also fired over two points in the first half while Brian Kavanagh posted five points (three frees).

Tipperary's Benny Hickey pointed after just 25 seconds. But Longford proceeded to dominate with points from Pádraig Berry, Kavanagh (2), Paul Barden and David Barden before the latter got the goal that put Tipperary in deep trouble, although they managed three points from their former All Star Declan Browne.

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Tipperary started the second half with a point from Benny Hickey, but Longford quickly replied with scores from Paul Barden (2) and Brian Kavanagh.

Browne pointed a free in the 47th minute and Brian Mulvihill grabbed a goal for Tipp five minutes later, but Longford remained much sharper and produced some great passages of football to score 14 points in the second half, five of them from Paul Barden.

David Barden ended up with 1-3 to his credit, while top scorer Kavanagh fired eight points.

On the evidence of this display, Longford can look forward to the third round of the qualifiers with considerable confidence.

LONGFORD: D Sheridan; D Brady, N Farrell, C Conefrey; S Mulligan, A O'Connor, D Reilly; B McElvaney (0-1), L Keenan (0-1); P Berry (0-1), P Barden (0-6, one free), T Smullen; D Barden (1-3), P Dowd, B Kavanagh (0-8, five frees). Subs: K Smith (0-1) for Smullen (injured, 24 mins); D Masterson for O'Connor (33 mins); P Foy (0-1) for Berry (46 mins); J Martin for Mulligan (62 mins); W Murray (0-1, free) for Kavanagh (66 mins).

TIPPERARY: P Fitzgerald; M Phelan, C Maher, A Morrissey; E Connolly, N Fitzgerald, R Costigan; K Connolly, M Peters; P Austin, D O'Brien (0-2), B Lacey (0-1); B Mulvihill (1-0), D Browne (0-4, three frees), B Hickey (0-3, one 45). Subs: G Hannigan for Mulryan (46 mins); K Quinlan for Peters (59 mins); S Murphy for Browne (70 mins).

Referee: P Hughes (Armagh).