Mikie Rowe bags brace for Wexford FC to down Longford Town

The Slaneysiders took the lead on 23 minutes when Cian O’Malley’s throw from the right bobbled inside the Town box, and captain Ethan Boyle hooked the ball forward into the path of Rowe who slotted it to the back of the Longford net from close range.

On the half-hour mark, a 25-yard effort from Mark Hanratty just whistled past the Town post.

Wexford almost doubled their advantage two minutes later when a Kian Corbally long-range pass resulted in striker Thomas Oluwa brilliantly turning Town defender Shane Elworthy and holding off the challenge of Luke Wade-Slater, only to fire his rising shot against the Longford crossbar.

The visitors went two up on 35 minutes. A throw from the right from Reece Webb picked out Luka Lovic, and he played the ball back to Webb who quickly played a one-two with the midfielder.

Webb’s cross was fired home by Rowe for his sixth league goal of the season with the aid of a deflection off Wade-Slater.

Wexford nearly scored a third on 54 minutes when a nicely-worked corner resulted in a mistake by Town substitute Bastian Hery which allowed Hanratty’s pass to find O’Malley, but his shot was brilliantly saved by Town ’keeper Jack Brady.

While the visitors were the better team in the first-half, the home side got back into the contest on 56 minutes when Hery’s ball was headed home by Wade-Slater.

Longford came close to levelling matters on 66 minutes, but Adam Wixted’s cross was headed narrowly over by Elworthy.

The home side again came close to equalising in the 70th minute when a Hery ball into the box caused a mix-up between Wexford ’keeper Owen Mason, and defenders Ben Lynch and Cian O’Malley.

That left Town striker Jordan Adeyemo with an open goal but somehow, he fired wide, having scored that last-gasp equaliser when the sides met previously in Ferrycarrig Park on April 16.

The Town were reduced to ten men in the 86th minute when defender Dean O’Shea was sent-off for a second bookable offence after he had taken down Rowe on the edge of the Longford box.

Rowe dusted himself down to fire the free-kick goalwards, but Town ’keeper Brady parried the effort with the ball rebounding wide off Lovic.

Next up with Wexford is a home game against Athlone Town on Friday at 7.45 p.m., with the teams only divided by goal difference on 18 points apiece.

Wexford FC: Owen Mason; Reece Webb, Cian O’Malley, Ben Lynch, James Crawford; Ethan Boyle (capt.); Kian Corbally, Luka Lovic; Mikie Rowe, Thomas Oluwa, Mark Hanratty. Subs. – Darragh Levingston for Hanratty (72), Cian Curtis for Oluwa (87), also Alex Moody, Aaron Robinson, Carl Lennox, Kaylem Harnett, Brandon McCann, Robbie O’Toole.

Longford Town: Jack Brady; Luke Wade-Slater, Shane Elworthy (capt.), Dean O’Shea, Kyle O’Connor; Jordon Tallon; Mohammed Boudiaf, Samuel Clarke, Ross Fay; Jordan Adeyemo, Francis Campbell. Subs. - Viktor Serdeniuk for Tallon HT), Adam Wixted for Boudiaf (HT), Conor Crowley for Clarke (HT), Bastian Hery for Campbell (HT), Emmanuel James for Fay (90), also Jack McCarthy, Vasyl Tropanets, Guilherme Rego Priosti, Callum Bonner.

Referee: Daniel Murphy (Dublin).

AIRTRICITY LEAGUE FIRST DIVISION

P W D L F A PTS

Cork City 12 8 4 0 19 3 28

UCD 12 6 3 3 17 11 21

Bray Wderers 12 5 3 4 22 18 18

Finn Harps 12 5 3 4 12 11 18

Wexford FC 11 5 3 3 22 21 18

Athlone Town 12 5 3 4 16 18 18

Treaty Utd 11 3 3 5 10 12 12

Cobh Rblers 11 2 4 5 15 21 10

Kerry FC 12 1 6 5 10 14 9

Longford Tn 11 0 4 7 12 26 4