Date: Sunday, January 14, 2001
Competition: FAI Cup, 2nd Round Replay
Venue: Turner's Cross, Cork

Result: City 1:2 L'ford
Half-time: 1:0
Scorers: D Coughlan 34; S Byrne 50, N Byrne 80
City team: Devine; O’Brien, Coughlan, Napier, O'Halloran; Caulfield, Gaughan, Herrick, Cahill; Mulligan, Morley.
Report: SCENES of unbridled joy greeted the final whistle at Turners Cross as Longford Town celebrated their unlikely win over a highly fancied Cork City in the FAI Cup yesterday.
Longford’s enthusiastic fans flooded onto the pitch keen to share in the sense of joy and achievement that was sweeping through the ranks of their brave team, who were unapologetic in their unrestrained delight at the end of the club’s most famous achievement to date.
Longford gave Cork a one goal lead and yet won on merit after a second half of sustained suspense and breath taking goal mouth incidents.
Make no mistake about it, this was Cup football at its best, full of commitment, determination, romance and, fittingly, a fairytale ending for the underdog and, in particular, their hero of the day striker Niall Byrne, who will hardly score a more important goal than his match winning strike with 11 minutes remaining.
Byrne was signed by Longford manager Stephen Kenny during the summer but a broken ankle suffered in a pre season match only saw him make his debut for the side in last weekend’s drawn encounter with Cork City, and yesterday’s strike marked his first goal for the club, earning him lavish praise from his manager.
“This really was a fairytale day for Niall (Byrne). He has worked very hard since breaking his ankle and I am delighted for him personally, for the team and for the fans who made the trip to Cork for this game. It really couldn’t have worked out better for us,” said Kenny.
There was no disguising what this win meant to the Longford faithful as they spilled onto the pitch to celebrate with their heroes as Turners Cross quickly because a riot of red and black as flags, jerseys, scarves and bodies swarmed over the delighted players.
Chants of Stepho rang around the ears of their all conquering manager as he, almost embarrassed at the attention, attempted to convey exactly what this triumph will mean to the continuing revolution that has taken the Midlands’ club by storm in recent seasons.
“This sets up what will be the biggest game in Longford’s history in the next round when St Patrick’s Athletic visit Flancare Park. I would expect anything up to 7,000 people at that game for what should be a night to remember for everyone involved in the club,” said Kenny.
After being very unfortunate not to wrap up this fixture in the original game last Saturday night when they created a myriad of chances but spurned all but one, City must have felt that they were well on the road to victory yesterday when Derek Coughlan put them in front after 33 minutes. Coughlan’s goal was just what the home side needed after comprehensively outplaying the visitors in the opening exchanges, and only the brilliant reactions of Longford’s goalkeeper Stephen O’Brien kept the scores level as Cork threatened a rout. The breakthrough eventually came following excellent work by Ollie Cahill, who twisted and turned his way into space on the right wing before sending in a dangerous looking cross that was half volleyed home by Coughlan from just inside the area.
Cork’s lead goal was no more than they deserved as James Mulligan, Stephen Napier, Ollie Cahill and an expertly struck free kick from Mark Herrick very nearly opened the scoring, but as in the original fixture, the Longford goalkeeper more than earned his wages with a virtuoso performance.
Relief more than anything else eventually greeted Coughlan’s timely goal, but in hindsight it was to prove to be Cork’s undoing as Longford have been behind against City already this season and come through unscathed, and there was a marked improvement in their play following the goal. It took them seven minutes of the second half to fashion an equaliser when a Wes Byrne free kick cannoned off the wall and fell to Stuart Byrne, who unleashed a spectacular volley that sailed gloriously into the back of the net as the Cork defence was rooted to the spot.
“I honestly thought we had done enough in the first half to have won the game.
“We scored the lead goal and had forced two brilliant saves from their goalkeeper but we just took too long to get going after the interval.
“If they hadn’t scored the equaliser that early on it could have been a totally different story,” said a bitterly disappointed Derek Mountfield.
Even with the arrival of Longford’s equaliser, Cork still had chances to win the game, but again creating chances and not converting them has been their Achilles heel this season, and they paid the ultimate price on 79 minutes with Niall Byrne’s goal. An ill advised cross field ball left Colin O’Brien always second best in a race for possession with Wes Byrne, and when the Longford Town captain inevitably won the race, the ball broke to Shay Zellor, who in turn played in Niall Byrne, and he calmly took the ball around the advancing Michael Devine before rolling the ball into the empty net.
With just minutes of normal time remaining, with frustrations at an all time high for the Leesiders, Mark Herrick was sent off for a petulant reaction to a foul committed on him by Stuart Byrne. After winning the free Herrick barged into Byrne and even though the Longford player theatrically threw himself to the deck to make a meal of the situation referee John McDermott had no option but to dismiss the Cork midfielder. by Conor George, The Examiner
Photo: Stuart Byrne of Longford celebrates the first goal against Cork City with team mates during the FAI Cup second round replay at Turner’s Cross, Cork yesterday. INPHO/Tom Honan
Sent-off: Herrick (Cork City), 87mins, Violent Conduct.
Referee: J McDermott