| Gritty Rovers take point from Flancare |
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| Tuesday, 28 March 2006 | |
 A rainy night and a sending off set the scene for the Bit O’Red to produce a dogged performance that secured a point in Flancare Park last night against Longford Town.The game may have ended scoreless but it was not without incident as Rovers hung on for the last twenty minutes following the dismissal of Chris Turner for a tackle from behind on Davy Byrne. Rovers made two changes from the team that started on Friday night in Derry, with McKenzie coming in for the injured McNamara and Darren Mansaram getting the nod ahead of Sean Flannery in the front line. And it was Mansaram’s performance that epitomised the spirit of the visitors. Never stopped running, never stopped hassling, never hiding. It must have been a frustrating night for the Longford faithful. Sligo came out of the stalls quickest and had early sight of goal with efforts from Kudozovic and Turner, but the closest they came to breaching the Longford line was when Liam Burns latched on to a loose ball in the box from a Foy corner. The shot was firm, but not on target. In terms of chances, this was as good as it got for Sean Connor’s men. Longford took control and two chances on twenty minutes and on the half hour could have changed the outcome. Both involved Baker and Kirby, the first seeing Baker set-up Kirby to volley a shot at close range but John O’Hara made a superb save. O’Hara was beaten on the half hour by Kirby’s glancing header from Baker’s cross, but the ball failed to find the target. The pressure continued in the second half as Rovers battled to secure the point. On seventy-one minutes it looked like all may have been lost with Chris Turner’s dismissal, but Gary Curran was introduced for McTiernan, and switching to a four-four-one formation, they battened down the hatches. There were a couple of scares in the final ten minutes, with Alan Kirby proving a handful, but the Bit O’Red held on to record their first away points of the campaign. Next up for the Rovers is a home game against St Pat’s on Saturday next, 1 April, in The Showgrounds. Kick 7.30pm. Sligo Rovers John O'Hara; Gavin Peers, Liam Burns, Jamie McKenzie, Keith Foy; Adam Hughes, Conor O'Grady, Chris Turner, Fahrudin Kudozovic; Paul McTiernan (Gary Curran 77), Darren Mansaram (Sean Flannery 90) Subs not used: Jason McCartney, Matt Judge, Richard Brush Longford Town Shay Kelly; Alan Murphy, Danny O'Connor, Kevin Doherty, Stephen Paisley; John Martin (Robbie Martin 89), Davy Byrne (inj, Andy Myler 73), Dean Fitzgerald, Sean Prunty; Alan Kirby; Dessie Baker. Subs not used: Steven Gough, Gary Cronin, Michael Dempsey. Referee: Declan Hanney (Dublin).
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