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Longford Town recorded a 3-0 win over Cabinteely at the City Calling Stadium. Two young locals Aodh Dervin and Tristian Noack-Hofman once again started last night. Tony Ghee spoke with Aodh Dervin. You can catch the interview on our SoundCloud page.
Having made his first competitive start of the season against Athlone Town last weekend, LTFC Social Media Manager James Donnelly sat down with local star Aodh Dervin to chat about all things LTFC.
Having joined the Longford Town under-age system at 15 years old, the former Melview FC player lined out for the Red and Black for 3 matches in his first season while also still donning the Melview shirt. The lure of Dublin clubs and a higher possibility of being scouted came calling but the youngster ultimately decided to stay put in his home town.
“When I first played with Longford Town, it was a development squad. We only played 3 games and I still played with my local club Melview at the time too, but the league of Ireland was huge help. It gave you a reason to stay in Longford and not to go to Dublin teams, the under-age system is really good in Longford and it can only improve.”
Aodh is just one of a number of first team members who rose through the under-age ranks at Longford Town FC. Arvagh man Tristan Noack-Hofmann came through from the U17s along with Karl Chambers from the U19s in the last few years. A club Aodh has supported since he was a small child, he reminisced on memories of City Calling Stadium.
“As a kid it was obviously a dream to play for Longford. I used to go to the games and I always dreamt of walking out in front of the crowd. When I used to go to the games as a kid, I loved ‘Digger O’Brien’ the goal keeper and Sean Prunty. They’re the two I can remember the most.”
This interview remembers being a member of the Longford Town FC U16 team quite a few years ago and standing in City Calling Stadium after a game when a small, loud, 10 year old boy approached him. Carrying his football in one hand and wearing a Longford Town jersey that was down to his knees, he approached me and began to dissect my performance and proceeded to tell me where I struggled as a player and what I should do to improve. He then told me that one day he’d be on the senior team and show the league how to play football. That young kid is the player I’m now interviewing. When asked what advice he could give to the younger lads coming up through the ranks, Aodh revealed a more modest side than the one showed almost 10 years previous.
“To be honest James there’s not much advice I can give as I’m still young and learning. The big thing I have learned is always ask your coaches/ managers on how you can improve and become better because it goes a really long way…and maybe just enjoy your football. For a while I forgot to enjoy it but when you do enjoy it there’s no better feeling than it!”
Aodh is certainly enjoying his football, having got 90 minutes under his belt last week along with a few substitution appearances so far this season, I got his thoughts on being selected for the starting XI in the El Classico v Athlone.
“Starting against Athlone last week came as a bit of a shock but it was a great feeling being named in the team. I think my performance could have been better..I showed a lot of nerves early on and did some silly things but all the lads eased me into the game which made it easier as the game went on.”
While Aodh showed some nerves in the opening quarter, he soon settled and put in a sublime performance with numerous social media commentators naming him man of the match. Anyone who watches can see why he has been called up to the International team on a number of occasions. He is a great example of a home grown player who loves his club. There was Zak Hackett in the past, Sean Prunty, Michael Lee, to name but a few locals who’ve stood out…now we have Aodh Dervin. Longford’s own.
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Daniel O’Reilly is arguably one of the most highly regarded defenders in SSE Airtricity League First Division having been named in the PFAI’s First Division Team of the Year last season.
So, after a solid start to the season for both himself and the rest of his teammates, Daniel had a quick chat with LTFC.ie reporter Andrew Dempsey ahead of a crucial weekend of fixtures for the “Red and Black Army” whilst also reflecting on the opening few games of the season for Neale Fenn’s charges.
After picking seven points from a possible twelve on offer, O’Reilly admits that it has been a decent start to the season for “De Town” and is already casting his eyes on crucial few weeks ahead as the “Red and Black” head into vital league games against both Galway United and Drogheda.
“I think it’s been a decent start! Obviously looking back, I think we could’ve taken more points if we were more sensible in the Cobh game being two-nil up and obviously things went a bit mad in the Shelbourne game but overall, it’s not been the worst start to the season. Obviously, we’ve got some big games coming up against Galway and Drogheda, so we’ll see how we fare after them.”
After the obvious disappointment of a heart-breaking three-two defeat against promotion rivals Shelbourne during our last away outing, the former Fulham FC youngster noted on the importance of getting back on track in a massive derby day win over Midlands rivals, Athlone Town last time out.
“Obviously, it was great to get the win! It wasn’t ideal that we went one-nil down so early on, but we’ve got good character in the team and we knew that the quality would come out to show. It could’ve been more than five on the night and obviously it was great for the supporters on the night to beat our local rivals Athlone with such a large number of goals!”
Saying that, the 22 year old combative defender knew that there were positives to take from the Shelbourne defeat, noting that he felt as if there was plenty to look back on with positivity as Longford Town were in charge for vast swathes of the game at Tolka Park.
“I was listening to Neale doing an interview after the game and he was actually quite positive! After the game, like myself, it’s easy to jump to conclusions to say could’ve done this and that but we dominated the game with eleven men and then with ten men to come back to two-all would’ve made it a great point, but I do think overall, we were the better team on the night! Obviously, we were sloppy at times and that cost us, but they happen. We can take positives with the way we played, and we never really tried to change the way we played and, look, Shels are a more physical and direct side but I do think that we could take positives from the game. From the defensive side of things, three goals aren’t great but listen, these things happen, and we’ll learn a lot more about ourselves and other things throughout the season!”
Looking ahead to the big game on Friday night at Éamonn Deacy Park, O’Reilly is confident of leaving Galway with a win under his belt.
“I know they’ve had a good start and they’re one point ahead of us in the table but they’re probably one of the favourites along with ourselves to go up! They’ve got some really good players in Danny Furlong who’s just joined them alongside Ryan Connolly who’s just arrived there from Rovers, so they do have a lot of quality about them. Saying that, we’ll be going into the game believing that we can win, not just going into the game looking for a point. We know that we’ve got goals in our side now, so it’s just up to the likes of myself to deliver at the other end of the pitch to keep a clean sheet come Friday night!”
With the Shamrock Rovers game coming so soon after the trip up to Galway, the former Bray Wanderers defensive option admitted that he relishes those kind of occasions against the so-called bigger sides away from the rig-ma-roll in the league campaign.
“Yeah it’s nice to have those kinds of games to look forward to! I remember we played them last year and funnily enough and we lost one-nil. They’ve got a good squad and I’m sure they’ll want to be trying out their younger players or players that haven’t really got into their side yet, but they’ll be quality players. It’s a good opportunity for us to show what we can do! With the style of play that we play, it probably suits us to play to play against the bigger teams as we try to play and they try to plays I think it’ll be a good game, a good contest between two teams that want to play so I’m looking forward to that on Monday but obviously Friday is the first thing on our minds but it’s nice to have straight after it!”
And last but certainly not least, the only Longford Town FC defender in last year’s PFAI First Division Team of the Year called on supporters to come out and support the team, admitting that it is a big help to the team when there’s a good, healthy crowd present at the games, pushing the “Red and Black” on as Neale Fenn plots a return back to the promised land of Premier Division football for “De Town”.
“The crowds have been really good so far and it’s good to see! Obviously seeing the crowd on Saturday against Athlone was good with all the numbers in the crowd and even in the past two home games against Cobh and Wexford they were good! Even against Shels we could hear the fans and it was really, really good to see. I know there’s a lot of work going on behind the scenes that’s really trying to push on and encourage bigger crowds to come to the games no matter where we’re going! I saw there was a bus organised for Finn Harps already, obviously it was called off due to the weather, but still, it’s really good to see! The more that come, the better it is for us and it really does help us in the games.”
