Second half goals from Paul Barden and Brian Kavanagh saw Longford claim a heavy All-Ireland SFC qualifier win over Cavan on Saturday.
The game at Kingspan Breffni Park was in the balance for much of the evening, but Longford’s killer instinct eventually saw them break away to a double scores victory, ousting their neighbours from the championship by 2-16 to 0-11.
Kavangh fired Longford into an early one-point lead after a line ball fell their way, with Sean McCormack soon doubling that advantage.
Eugene Keating split the posts as the men co-managed by Val Andrews and Terry Hyland got back level, but in a scrappy first half they were to go three points down by the 20th minute.
Veteran Barden scored a beauty in that run, with McCormack making it 0-5 to 0-2 before a poor miss from Barden failed to extend that lead. Several Midlanders men were culpable of such wides, with James McEnroe ending a long Cavan drought with their first score in over a quarter of an hour.
Mark McKeever then scored to put just one between the teams, before a Seanie Johnston free levelled it and Keating’s impressive high score gave the hosts the lead for the first time. That was his third point of the game and a fourth unanswered one from Cavan. Barden finally brought an answer but might have gone for goal when he made it 0-6 apiece just after the half hour.
A wonder point from Keating then put the Breffni back in front and they took a 0-7 to 0-6 lead into half-time.
Niall McDermott extended that lead with the first point of the second half, but is was immediately responded to by Barden’s third point of the day.
McCormack then hit back-to-back points to put his side back in front and Bernard McIlvanney fired over another before Barden found the back of the net to put Glenn Ryan’s men clear.
McCormack was the architect, the forward burst into the danger zone before unselfishly offloading to the long-serving Barden, who made no mistake as he kicked the ball beyond O'Reilly.
Johnston and McCormack then traded scores, the Longford man’s the first of two successive frees from him that brought the score to 1-12 to 0-9. The Breffni men got a couple back, but McCormack was proving flawless from frees now and he helped his side go six points clear.
They were soon a man clear too when Gareth Swift was shown a second yellow card and Kavanagh then made it 2-14 to 0-11. The attacker ran onto a great long ball forward from Francis McGee and fired to James O’Reilly’s net.
McCormack and Kavanagh both hit points after the goal to put more gloss on the win, while Cavan had a second man sent off as David Givney was punished for lashing out.