Supporters Club Notes

Supporters’ Club Notes (02/07/2018)

Mon Jul 2nd 2018

SCORCHING WIN

With the sun blazing down on Friday evening, De Town bowled over UCD in a magnificent 5-1 win away win. Apart from the hosts, the only losers were those who didn’t travel for this incredible win against the runaway league leaders. With the second half about to start, some said, they’d even settle for a share of the points. After all, most agreed that UCD had been the best opposition we had faced all season. So really that puts the four goal winning margin into perspective. Dylan netted twice with Sam Verdon, Shane Elworthy and Daniel O Reilly also rattling the back of the net in what a sizzling five start performance by all the players. Some of the goals were top class but Shane Elworthy’s 35 yard lob is surely worthy of inclusion as contender for goal of the season.

You can find the highlights and post match interview with Neale Fenn here.

TERRIFIC SUPPORTERS

The travelling support at the UCD Bowl certainly played their supportive part in the superb 5-1 trouncing of the students on their home patch. The singing was non stop right throughout the game and their were many hoarse throats on the way home. But the broad grins and happy smiles certainly made up for any sore throats. Once again, fair play to Section O for spreading the good news before the game and then roaring their support right through the encounter. Well done lads and lassies, terrific job.

COBH AT HOME

On Saturday, it’s back to base again when we welcome Cobh Ramblers to the City Calling Stadium. While confidence will be soaring as high as recent temperatures, it’s going to be another tough, robust encounter. It has to be remembered that last week end, Drogheda just about got the better of a dogged Cobh team in a game played up in Drogheda. We can’t expect another champagne performance but it’s vital that we don’t slip up and take full points to maintain our hard earned momentum.

BIG CROWD NEEDED

Apart from the obvious three points, we also need to see a much bigger crowd out in the City Calling Stadium this Saturday evening. The team are certainly playing their part on the pitch and off the pitch, the stadium continues to look magnificent. As usual, there will be the core support but really at this stage, we need to see so many more supporting Longford Town. If you have friends or relatives visiting for the holidays, then why not take them to see De Town in action. The World Cup is grand but it’s only on the telly, the real, live experience is the true authentic experience. Come on out on Saturday evening, we’d love to see you there.

PLAYER OF THE MONTH / JUNE

Heartiest congratulations to Dylan McGlade who is Player of the Month for June. Although, we had a break mid month, it was an extremely difficult choice with so many worthy players having an outstanding few weeks. The presentation will be made just after the players come off the pitch after their warm up and before the game against Cobh.

AND AGAIN

And once again, we extend our sincere congratulations to Dylan McGlade on yet another honour.

Following his top drawer performance against UCD , Dylan was named as the SSE Airtricity League Player of the Week. His two goals helped De Town to possibly the shock of the domestic soccer week end. Apart from extra dusting duties on his recent trophy haul, it’ll keep him busy updating his twitter account too.

EXCELLENT COVERAGE

It may sound like idle boasting, but credit where it’s due. The online coverage of our games has reached dizzy heights recently. Not alone are there instant goal and incident updates but now all the action and goals are posted on our website almost as soon as they happen. The videos, still images, interviews are really excellent and any larger club would be chuffed to have this service. Checking out other clubs’ websites, we’re more than holding on our own these days. Fair play to our IT and media savvy experts…you’re playing a blinder and it’s appreciated by Town supporters both home and very far away.

STAY COOL

While this blistering hot weather continues, a word of caution to our younger supporters who are taking part on different summer skills schools. Bring plenty of water and stay hydrated and if resting on the sidelines, stay in the shade if at all possible. It was nice to see former Republic of Ireland legend Damien Duff distributing water bottles during the water break at the U15 game in the City Calling Stadium last Saturday afternoon.

Supporters’ Club Notes (17-06-2018)

Sun Jun 17th 2018

VITAL VICTORY

We had a vital 1-0 victory over Drogheda last Friday night at the City Calling Stadium. The visitors had a small travelling support and indeed many of our own supporters missed this important win because of the Spain v Portugal World Cup game live on TV. But even though there was small crowd than usual, it was no less noisy and supportive. Our goal came, somewhat against the run of play with Sam Verdon rising highest to head home the only goal of the game. His victory dance is now becoming very popular with our young supporters and was even used during the half time children’s game.

After that opening goal, a certain bite entered the game and at times, the ref struggled to keep tabs on proceedings. The visitors did have the ball in de Town net at the end but hearts started beating again when it was noticed that the linesman had it flagged offside.

It was the prefect response to the blip in Cabinteely and leaves sitting pretty enough in 4th place heading into the break. As one happy supporter put it as he unlocked his car… “we’ve won all our Friday home fixtures this season !” Maybe we should switch from Saturday nights!

ENJOY THE BREAK

We won’t have a home game now till July. Our next fixture will be away to league leaders UCD, where hopefully we can teach the students a lesson. In the meantime, there’s any amount of games on television to help fill the void. But really, there can’t be any substitute for the real live spectacle.

Once again, it was heartening to see so many youngsters enjoying Friday night’s game. Seeing the young boys and girls exchange high fives after the game and you know the game will survive locally long after these golden oldies have left the pitch of play. Enjoy the break from play and the talk and gossip about the potential new signings.

PITY POOR MARTY

It’s bad enough being stuck in hospital for a long period during the warm summer days . But for Martin Stapleton, it’s even worse. Marty is going through a tough time in Mullingar hospital. First of all he has missed our terrific wins against Galway, Finn Harps and Drogheda. That’s bad enough but he has no facilities to watch the World Cup games on TV which is a real pain for one of the Town’s all time great supporters of the beautiful game. But apart from missing so many games, we really wish Marty a speedy recovery to full health. His main concern as he lay in his hospital bed during the week was how long more he’d be away from the club he loves so dearly. Get well first Marty, there’s plenty of games left yet.

CONGRATS

Sincere congratulations to Town players, Shane Elworthy and Jamie Hollywood who played for the Irish Universities and Colleges against their French counterparts last Tuesday. Further congrats to Shane who was awarded player of the game. Ireland won 2-1 and thoroughly deserved their win against a talented French side. According to all accounts, the international organisers were very impressed with our facilities at the City Calling Stadium. We too were impressed with both teams who left the dressing rooms and bench area in a perfect condition. It now looks like we could be rewarded next season with further and more important international fixtures.

THE SCOREBOARD

Work continues indoors on the revamped scoreboard. Not alone should it be able to tell us the score and time but it’ll also be able to flash messages for birthdays and lights left on in cars etc. The new scoreboard is being funded by the Supporters’ Club.

ONE TEAM. ONE DREAM. WON FRIDAY NIGHT.

The above is the title of the latest book on our domestic league by author Brian Kennedy. It’s a superb collection of stories on the highs and lows of every single club in the land and some which are no longer with us. The book also contains a fine collection of excellent photos. Longford Town’s fabulous season of 2014 is very well remembered in an article by Martin Stapleton. It’d make a perfect late Father’s Day present or indeed just buy it for yourself. Copies are available in Newsround, Ballymahon St.

NEW DADDY

Our media manager James Donnelly is working overtime these days and nights. He’s the proud Daddy of his first born and is busy on nappy changing and bottle filling duties. But James still managed to upload the video to our social media various platforms of Sam Verdon’s vital winning goal on Friday night.

AND NOW THE BREAK

Despite promises of no notes last week, we simply had to acknowledge our win over Drogheda and a few other items. But that’s it for a few weeks. For any updates, keep an eye on our social media outlets. Until then, enjoy the fare from Russia.

Supporters’ Club Notes (11-06-2018)

Mon Jun 11th 2018

DROGHEDA ON FRIDAY NIGHT

It’s been a while since we welcomed Drogheda to the City Calling Stadium but they’re our welcome visitors this Friday night. And then we have our mid-season break. And that’s welcome too. Last Friday night was a huge disappointment when we beaten by a single goal by Cabinteely. It brought our long unbeaten run to an unexpected end. The Drogs also lost on Friday night so obviously both teams will be hoping for an improvement. We certainly could do with a three pointer heading into the break. Whether we have new signings during that period remains to be seen but a big crowd on Friday night is really what we want and of course three points at the end of all that shouting and supporting.

INTERNATIONAL ON TUESDAY

Tuesday, 12th June at 4pm sees an international at the City Calling Stadium. The Irish Universities take on their counterparts from France in what should be an intriguing game. These players should have skill as well as brains in abundance so it should be a perfect way to spend an afternoon locally. The game has been below the radar but now you know, we hope to see you there.

SCOREBOARD

Work is in progress in re establishing a new state of the art scoreboard. Setting it all up is more complex than you might think and it’ll probably take us a few weeks to get it up and running properly. And if you’re wondering where the funds came for this latest project. Well, the answer is from the Supporters’ Club and particularly from the car boot sales. Remember when you support the Supporters’ Club, you’re supporting the facilities at the City Calling Stadium.

BREAK TIME

With the players and management taking their summer break, these short notes will be doing likewise. So just that you won’t be overly disappointed when you search for them next week!!

Supporters’ Club Notes (03/06/2018)

Sun Jun 3rd 2018

A MIGHTY WIN

There’s no point in giving yet another match report here but suffice to say that our 3-2 victory over Galway was a mighty win. A massive thunderstorm and torrential downpour early in the balmy evening, meant that the game could have been called off. What a disaster that would have been. But the ground staff defied the gods and despite an army of midges, the game went ahead.

And what a magnificent game it turned out to be. Most said it was probably our best performance yet. If you were cycling past the City Calling Stadium, you’d have sworn there were at least five thousand at the match, such was the volume of the enthralled supporters on both sides. The electric atmosphere more than matched the lightning storm from earlier. Two nil up and down to ten men at the break meant that there was plenty of animated discussions in the busy clubhouse at half time.

Aodh Dervin’s superb strike was enough to get him an honorary Leaving Cert while Sam Verdon’s dance routine after his smashing goal was especially for his little brother Bobby. We also had the sad sight of a Galway player being stretchered off by the St John Ambulance Crew.

The second half was bound to be a nervous 45 minutes and when the visitors nabbed agoal back, finger nails were in danger of disappearing. The tension reached fever pitch when the Tribesmen were thrown a lifeline with the awarding of a dubious penalty.Even western comments on their own website admitted it was the softest penalty ever awarded to them. But when the ball almost blasted an overflying crow to smithereens, the home crowd bayed with delight. Justice was done. Pauric Connolly’s animated reaction was caught on camera and is nearing viral status. Every player played his heart out. Some thought that Galway, being full time, that their fitness would tell as the game wore on. The second half had more drama on show than the Backstage Theatre. We had fabulous saves, blocks, an other goal each, missed chances and all to a non stop soundtrack of singing and cheering from both Section O and the stand.

On the pitch we were treated to the best display of the season and off pitch, the players and management said they were treated to the best support of the season, so far. It was only when the final whistle finally sounded that we realised we’d be eaten alive with hungry army of midges. But with three points bagged and three goals scored, we could put up with the tiny horrors. One middle ages Galway supporter summed it up perfectly, saying “fair play to ye, that was a mighty win for ye”.

PLENTY OF TRAVEL

On the Bank Holiday Monday we head to Finn Park to face Finn Harps in the rescheduled game and then just four days later, Friday June 8th it’s up to Dublin to play Cabinteely in Stradbrook with a 7.45 kick off. Fulfilling both those dates is demanding for even the most dedicated travelling supporter so spare a thought for the team and management who have to work their socks off as well as travelling. Best of luck and safe travels to all making those demanding and tiresome trips.

MARTY

The news that super supporter Marty Stapleton was hospitalised sent shivers through all those attending the City Calling Stadium on Friday night last. Every one was simply shocked to the core and that included many travelling Galway fans too. Marty is known in every ground throughout the land and his absence from his home ground on Friday night was sorely felt. The win over Galway was for you Marty and hopefully the energy and goodwill generated will find its way to you and have you back among your mates in Section O, as soon as possible. See you soon Marty.

PLAYER OF THE MONTH / MAY

It was a case of two legends meeting when the May Player of the Month award was presented. Pauric Connolly has been supporting De Town for many decades before Sam Verdon was even born. But both are now twinned in their combined passion for De Town as Pauric presented Sam with his deserved award before kick off on Friday night.

WATERBOYS

Any one who arrived early on Friday night witnessed a miracle. With a torrential downpour of biblical proportions creating a mini lake of Galilee, it seemed impossible that the game could proceed. But as soon as the last drops splashed, the ground staff plus a few volunteers swung into action. Armed to the teeth with grapes, brushes and scrapers they set to work with immediate impact. Because the downpour seemed to target the City Calling Stadium only, some fans could hardly believe their eyes on arrival. But fair play to the lads who worked till they were wringing wet with sweat while drying out the pitch.

CAR BOOT SALE

These lines are penned before Monday’s Bank Holiday Car Boot Sale. But a huge and sincere thank you to the mighty volunteers who rise before the sun to ensure everything runs smoothly and successfully.

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