Finn Harps lose ground on play-offs as Longford Town hit late equaliser

Finn Harps missed the chance to win a fifth game in a row after conceding a late equaliser against Longford Town at Bishopsgate.

The pair shared the spoils for the fourth successive time this season as they played out a one-all draw, with Longford substitute Emmanuel Oluwafemi’s late equaliser cancelling out Hans Mpongo’s stunning goal for the Harps.

This draw means that Longford Town have not beaten Finn Harps at home since 2014 and manager Wayne Groves has yet to record a victory over the Ballybofey side in seven attempts. Kevin McHugh’s charges continue their impressive form as Harps are now unbeaten in six matches.

But just one point behind Treaty United before the match, and the Limerick side snatched a 97th-minute winner to beat UCD and move three clear.

Making just one change from their 1-0 win over the Limerick men, Ibrahima Bangoura made his first start for the club, with the injured Conor Tourish missing out.

The visitors had the game’s first opportunity in the second minute when a super pass from Idir Zerrouk found Mpongo, but his shot from a tight angle from the right was straight at Town keeper Kian Moore.

On sixteen minutes, Harps almost found the net, but Oran Brogan’s close-range header from Kieran Cooney’s left-wing cross went over the Town bar.

The home side had to wait until the twentieth minute for their first real effort on goal when Daragh Murtagh’s pass from the left picked out Danny Norris, but his twenty-two-yard strike drifted wide of the Harps’ post.

In the twenty-fourth minute, Mpongo’s brilliant run along the end-line from the left took him past Longford defender Eric Yoro and it almost produced the lead goal, but Town keeper Moore was well positioned to block Mpongo’s rasping shot.

Two minutes later, the Donegal men were very unlucky not to rattle the Town net as Joel Bradley Walsh hit a sumptuous curling free-kick from twenty-five yards out that seemed destined for the top corner, only for the ball to come crashing back off the upright with Moore rooted to the spot.

It was the Midlanders who hit the woodwork next as a thirty-second minute corner floated in from the left by Aaron Doran resulted in Emre Topcu’s looping header from the right sailing over Harps’ keeper Lorenzo Piaia, but it dropped onto the butt of the left post.

In the same minute, the Donegal side almost took the lead in bizarre fashion. Cooney delivered an aimless cross from the left that should have been easily dealt with by Moore, but as he gathered the ball, it bounced off his chest towards the goal, and it fortuitously came back off the post.

A breakaway quickfire clearance from Moore in the fifty-seventh minute almost resulted in a Town goal. His clearance should have been dealt with by Harps defender Michael Place but he completely misjudged the ball which went past him and that allowed Norris to race in on goal with just Piaia to beat, but Norris lost control of the ball, allowing Place to recover brilliantly to dispossess the Town winger.

Kevin McHugh’s charges hit the Longford woodwork for the third time on sixty-five minutes when Mpongo’s shot from sixteen yards out on the right-hand side grazed the top of the crossbar.

The Donegal men broke the deadlock on seventy-one minutes when an exquisitely inch-perfect chipped pass from Tony McNamee resulted in the unmarked Mpongo running onto the ball and firing a thunderous twenty-yard shot on the bounce over the outrushing Town keeper Moore into the roof of the Longford net.

Longford substitutes Emmanuel Oluwafemi and Kyle Robinson combined on eighty-one minutes to severely test the Harps rearguard. Oluwafemi’s curling low cross into the danger area was cleared by the head of Place, but the ball landed at the feet of Robinson sixteen yards out but instead of finding the target, he pulled his shot badly wide.

Longford Town equalised on eighty-seven minutes with a brilliantly worked goal. A quick free-kick saw Doran and Yoro exchange short passes and Doran’s cross was headed on by Robinson into the path of Oluwafemi, and he planted a low shot beyond the outstretched arms of keeper Barbosa into the bottom corner.

The home side should have gone ahead just a minute later with a glorious chance when substitute Dean George found himself totally unmarked just twelve yards out from goal but he tamely shot straight at Piaia.

Harps also missed a glorious chance to take all three points. In the last minute of stoppage time, an Mpongo cross was headed narrowly over from close range by substitute Shaunie Bradley.

Longford Town: Kian Moore, Alex O’Brien, Oisin Hand, Erick Yoro, Dean O’Shea, Sean Moore, Emre Topcu, Aaron Doran, Pharrell Manuel, Daniel Norris, Darragh Murtagh.

Substitutes: Kyle Robinson for Manuel, Emmanuel Oluwafemi for Norris, & Dean George for Murtagh (all 71 minutes), Stefan Ugbesia for Topcu (86 minutes).

Finn Harps: Lorenzo Piaia, Mikey Place, Max Hutchinson, Joel Bradley-Walsh, Kieran Cooney, Oran Brogan, Tony McNamee, Gradi Lomboto, Idir Zerrouk, Ibrahima Bangoura, Hans Mpongo.

Substitute: Gavin Hodgins for Bangoura (60 minutes), Adam McDaid for McNamee (83 minutes), Shaunie Bradley for Lomboto (90 minutes).