Published: Wednesday, 11th November, 2009 4:46pm

Longwood show real battling qualities

by Conall Collier

Longwood 2-8, Straffan 0-8

Longwood got their Leinster Club JFC campaign off to a winning start when they survived Sunday's trip to Straffan following a robust encounter.

For a junior grade, this game was played at a frantic pace and a tight pitch contributed to the excitement as the home side literally tore into their Meath opponents.

Referee Damien Brazil had to keep a very tight rein on proceedings, without official linesmen, and he eventually issued two dismissal orders in the closing stages.

One was a standard departure notice when he brandished a red card to Straffan's Scott Neville who got involved in something that didn't concern him when Longwood's Karl Ennis was receiving a yellow card.

The other matter resulted in a Longwood official leaving the sideline area while outside the perimeter fence Longwood supporters were questioning the pedigree of the Offaly official.

And why they were doing that is a mystery, but they maintained a constant barrage of criticism for 60 minutes, which wasn't necessary. The statistics show that the referee awarded 20 frees to Longwood and 18 to Straffan, but he also issued three yellow cards to the Meath team as opposed to one for the hosts. Longwood were lucky to emerge with a victory because Straffan dominated for most of the game and can claim they they were completely out of luck.

That would be a bit wide of the mark by the hosts, not unlike their shooting, which was abysmal and resulted in 15 wides compared to a paltry five for Longwood.

"We were under pressure for most of the game, but we also put Straffan under a lot of pressure and that probably contributed to their large tally of wides," Longwood manager Mark McDonagh told the Meath Chronicle.

Longwood were on the backfoot from the start as John Cullinane and Mickey Burke were overshadowed at midfield by Straffan's Robert Kelly and Paul Donovan.

The play was very congested around the middle and there was plenty of broken ball which gave the Longwood half-back line of Brendan Hanna, Vincent Byrne and Jim Mahon opportunities to claim loose possession.

Hanna had an outstanding game and was probably eclipsed by Longwood's two-goal hero Aaron Ennis, but the wing-back was superb throughout and made a big contribution to this victory.

Hard hitting, some of it almost late, was a feature of Straffan's tactics and it unsettled Longwood sufficiently to leave them two points adrift (0-3 to 0-5) at the interval, but that wasn't a bad position. Austin Allen claimed four of those Straffan points before his contribution was curtailed by a change of marker in the form of Ciaran Greene while Kelly accounted for the home side's other score. It's worth noting also that Allen only managed a brace of pointed frees after the resumption.

Rory Maguire (two) and Eoin Lynch kept Longwood in touch, but they can also thank goalkeeper Jarlath Cully who made a smart reaction save to keep out a James Devane effort close to the interval.

Longwood resumed smartly and were on level terms within three minutes of the resumption.

Maguire converted two frees which gave the Meath side a platform to build on.

The turning point arrived when Hanna made a crucial interception in his own half-back line which broke up a promising Straffan attack. The ball was worked down the field where Aaron Ennis raced clear and finished to the net from a difficult angle.

By the end of the third-quarter the game appeared to be over as a contest.

Wayne Leonard raced away from Straffan's Robert Fagan who slipped and that helped create space which Aaron Ennis took advantage of to add a second goal for a 2-6 to 0-6 lead.

Undaunted, Straffan dug deep and managed points from Sean McElwaine and Allen, but when play was stopped for the yellow card to Karl Ennis, Neville got involved, struck out and saw red. That broke Straffan's momentum and Longwood finished with a flourish of points from Maguire and Aaron Ennis.

Longwood - J Cully; C Greene, E Dixon, J Colgan; B Hanna, V Byrne, J Mahon; J Cullinane, M Burke; G Ennis, M Weir, E Lynch (0-1); A Ennis (2-1), W Leonard (0-1, free), R Maguire (0-5, four frees, one sideline). Subs - C Lynch for G Ennis 24 mins; K Ennis for Mahon 39m; P Bannon for Weir, C Byrne for Hanna, J Dorran for Byrne all 59m.

Straffan - A Devane; D Fagan, M Hanafin, R Fagan; C Gaynor, S Neville, N Donovan; R Kelly (0-1), P Donovan; D Ashe, N Gaynor, A O'Neill; A Allen (0-6, three frees), S McElwaine (0-1), J Devane. Subs - K Byrne for Gaynor 36 mins; N Devane for J Devane 56m.

Referee - Damien Brazil (Offaly).

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