Costly injuries mar United's first win

A FIRST win of the season, but it came at a cost as both Derek O’Brien and John Fitzgerald picked up injuries that look like ruling them out of the visit of Cork City in the League on Friday night.O’Brien pulled up and grabbed his right leg when chasing a ball in the seventh minute of this League Cup first round clash on Tuesday night, and afterwards confirmed he felt a tightening of his hamstring while running. The one godsend was the fact that he was not running at full pace, and previous hamstring problems he has had have been with his left leg, so the enforced layoff may not stretch too long.It is a similar story with Fitzgerald,who came off with 20 minutes to go with a muscle strain, but his chances of facing Cork, while no better than marginal, are still better than O’Brien’s.It was Fitzgerald’s central defensive partner John Lester who sent United on their way with an absolute belter of a goal six minutes into the second half. The result was put beyond doubt by Ciaran Foley 18 minutes later to set up a second round clash with Sligo Rovers in the Showgrounds, a tie likely to be played on Tuesday May 6.United dominated on Tuesday from the first minute to last and should have won by a lot more against a Longford side made up of reserve team players. They might have won for the first time, and kept their first clean sheet of the season, but........