Leinster Senior Cup Report: UCD 1 - 2 Longford Town

A brace from Jackson Ryan saw Longford Town progress to the next round of the Leinster Senior Cup as they defeated UCD at the Belfield Bowl on Tuesday night.  

Longford settled into the game a lot quicker than the home side and with this bright start came the first few chances of the game.

A wild Tristan Hofmann shot was followed up shortly after with two decent Dylan McGlade efforts. The UCD goalie Jack Brady was sharp in pushing away the first before palming out the second for a corner.

Kevin Caffrey was the man to start creating for UCD as he beat his man and ran into the box from the right before drilling the ball across the box at speed but there was nobody on the end of it to capitalise.

Ben Hanrahan opened the scoring after twenty minutes and it was no less than UCD deserved. Longford Town had been quite wasteful with the few chances that came their way in the early stages of the first half.

UCD were putting together some lovely passing sequences in midfield and looked a lot more comfortable on the ball in the opening period.

A triangle of passes between Hanrahan, McDonald and Mahdy left Hanrahan on his own in the box to tap the ball home and give UCD a deserved 1-0 lead.

Longford weren’t creating much in the final third but were playing with pace and passing the ball around at a very high tempo when they did have it.

UCD seemed to gain lots of confidence after their goal and Sean McDonald was really starting to grow into the game and take a hold just behind the strikers.

A perfectly weighted ball through the middle from McDonald for Caffrey should have resulted in UCD’S second of the night but the UCD midfielder rushed his shot and pulled the ball just wide of the post.

Longford should have been level minutes before half time when Adam O’Connor rose highest from a Darren Meenan cross to find himself with a free header but miss-controlled the ball completely as the ball went out for a goal kick.

It took Longford just three minutes into the second-half to find their equaliser through Jackson Ryan who was quickest to react to a rebound after Conor Kearns couldn’t hold the initial shot.

The game settled down and got very quiet after the Longford equaliser with both sides wary of conceding a second and trying their best to counter.

Neale Fenn started to empty his bench early enough in the second-half bringing on Michael McDonnell, Dean Zambra and Chris Mulhall.

McDonnell had a great chance to give his side the lead just minutes after entering the game when he found himself with a free header from another super Darren Meenan cross but sent his chance sailing over the bar.

The comeback was complete for Longford Town with ten minutes remaining when Jackson Ryan got his second of the night.

A composed one-two between Jamie Hollywood and Ryan left Ryan to compose himself and round the keeper to tap into an empty net.

UCD had the final chance of the game in the dying moments to equalise when Jason McClelland rattled the crossbar with a shot but the goalkeeper gathered and that was to be the last chance of the game with Longford advancing to the next round.

UCD: Conor Kearns, Darragh Corcoran, Evan Osam (Mark Dignam 46), Evan Farrell, Luke Boore, Conor Crowley, Paul Doyle, Sean McDonald, Yoyo Mahdy, Kevin Coffey (Jason McClelland 73), Ben Hanrahan

Subs not used: Carl Williams, Dan Tobin, Gary O’Neill

Longford Town: Jack Brady, Tristan Hoffmann, Adam O’Connor, Evan Galvin (Dean Zambra 66), Jamie Hollywood, Karl Chambers (Michael McDonnell 64), Dean Byrne, Darren Meenan (Chris Mulhall 72), Jackson Ryan, Daniel Ridge, Dylan McGlade

Subs not used: Uli Keller, Dan O’Reilly, Sam Verdon

Booked: Jamie Hollywood

Referee: Paula Brady

Attendance: 100 (est)

Extratime.ie Man of the Match: Jackson Ryan