Mervue show character in first home win

Date Published: 21-Apr-2009

MERVUE United made it two wins on the bounce at Terryland on Saturday evening with a hard fought win over Longford Town.

They had to come from behind twice, though, with the visitors taking the lead as early as the sixth minute. An in-swinging corner from Gary Curran caught United midfielder Ger McGrath flatfooted eight yards out and his misguided header sailed straight past Ryan Griffin in the Mervue goal.

The ‘home’ side gradually settled into the task at hand, with David O’Brien providing the most potent attacking threat down the right channel and Rory Gaffney on the other wing always a threat from set pieces.

While the home side dominated for large periods of the half they created few clear cut chances with Longford centre half Brian McCarthy dealing comfortably with the aerial threat. David O’Dowd found himself free in the box on a couple of occasions in the latter stages of the half but failed to really test Gough in the Longford goal. O’Dowd then fed O’Brien who turned cleverly to evade Curran before his sweet 20-yard strike just cleared Gough’s crossbar.

Despite being…