Longwood registered their first league win of the season with an impressive performance against Dunshaughlin on Tuesday evening.

The victory and, perhaps more importantly, the performance will have given the players, management, and supporters a much-needed boost after what has been a difficult start to the season.

Despite missing four county players and the injured Anthony Healy, Longwood’s team looked stronger on paper and so it proved. The boys hit the ground running with Ryan Moore kicking the first of his eight points with only seventeen seconds on the clock. A couple of minutes later Moore was to turn provider, his beautifully weighted pass was grabbed by Tadhg Connolly who drilled it to the net.

Longwood proceeded to dominate the first half, restricting their opponent to just three points. At the other end, Sean Coloe, Ryan Moore and Tadhg Connolly were causing all sorts of problems and keeping the scoreboard ticking in the home team’s favour. The half-time score of 1-7 to 0-3 in no way flattered Longwood and was a fair reflection of the opening thirty minutes.

The challenge now was to maintain the performance level across the hour and the lads did so pretty well, save for a ten-minute lull midway through the second period. The concession of a goal reduced the lead to six points and when the referee awarded a penalty to the visiting side, the tide appeared to be turning. Thankfully the penalty struck the post and Longwood’s defenders gobbled up the rebound; the mini crisis was over.

The dynamic duo of Coloe and Moore rattled off four unanswered points and the game was settled. A late Dunshaughlin goal may annoy the defence, but it was too late to affect the outcome.

The victory may not be enough to keep us in the division, but it is just reward for the team’s honesty of effort and skill.

With one more league game to go, we can look forward to the business end of the season with hope.

Longwood: Sean O’Shea, Bob Maguire, Ross Kerrigan, Scout Hanna, Ciaran Sheridan, Ryan Moore (0-8), Gavin Griffith, Sean Coloe (0-4), Niall Mulvey, Adam O’Brien, Cian O’Hare, Tomas Coloe, Tadhg Connolly (1-3), Paul Gill, Josh Meagher. Subs: Mark Kennedy, Cathal Campbell, Sam King, James Sweeney, Sam Dixon, David McQuaid, Louis Butler