Longford’s survival chances were dealt a major blow after losing 1-19 to 0-12 to Antrim at Belfast in Allianz football league division three.
The hosts led 1-11 to 0-3 at the half-time break and held off a second half comeback from Longford to record a ten-point victory.
Antrim started impressively leading 1-4 to no score on 11 minutes. Longford eventually got off the mark when Darren Gallagher slotted over a free two minutes later.
Gallagher was Longford’s only scorer in the second half and the Granard clubman added his second point of the day on 23 minutes; Antrim were still six points clear.
The hosts replied with five successive points before another Gallagher score on the stroke of half-time left 11 points between them at the interval.
Oran Kenny opened Longford’s account two minutes into the second half and five minutes later Jack Duggan added another point but Longford were still 11 points down.
Cian Dooner reduced the margin to ten points on the hour mark before two points from Conor Murray and one from Pat Chivers made it a 13-point game with five minutes remaining.
Longford finished with a flourish hitting three unanswered points thereafter but still suffered a heavy defeat; the Midlanders now have three losses from five matches.
