Longford Town FC • Official Website
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Some action shots and familiar faces captured by our photographer Tiernan Dolan at City Calling Stadium last night. We have loads more pictures on Longford Town Supporters’ Club Facebook page.
Our half time team Gaels United girls U10’s had the pleasure of meeting some of the LTFC officials and players, but more importantly, Stephanie Roche during their trip to City Calling Stadium tonight!!
Longford Town cruised past Athlone Town at the City Calling Stadium winning by five goals to one in the first El Classico of the season with Chris Mulhall and Dean Byrne both scoring a brace while Evan Galvin completed the scoring for the home side.
The contest marked the first senior league start for local youngster Aodh Dervan who recovered from a nervous start to put in a tremendous display that caught the eye, while Evan Galvin also impressed as he also stepped up to the plate in the absence of five regular starters who were out due to a combination of suspensions and injuries.
Chris Mulhall continued his explosive start to the season as he not only scored twice but he also assisted two of the other three goals and he will certainly be a key player in Longford’s promotion push this season.
Despite the one-sided contest, it was Athlone who struck first, as a poor header from McDonnell after a mix up in the Longford defence presented an opportunity to Athlone striker McCullough who despatched a glorious twenty-two yard strike over Town keeper Kelly to the Longford net.
The home side dominated after that with a third minute Galvin shot producing a fine save from Athlone keeper O’Donnell and after constant pressure, Longford eventually equalised on twenty minutes.
Elworthy rampaged down the right wing and delivered a sumptuous curling cross that picked out Mulhall and although his initial shot was superbly saved by O’Donnell, Mulhall pounced to drill home the rebound.
Four minutes later, a thirty yard strike from Galvin whistled narrowly past the Athlone post and in the thirty-third minute, a perfectly weighted pass from Zambra set-up Byrne as he beat the Athlone offside trap, he raced towards the visitors goal and rounded keeper O’Donnell only to shoot into the side netting from a very tight angle.
Byrne made amends for that miss just sixty seconds later as he latched onto a delicious Mulhall pass to fire a low diagonal shot beyond the despairing dive of O’Donnell into the bottom right corner of the Athlone net to put the home side two one up.
Mulhall was at the heart of the action again on forty-one minutes as he floated a ball from the right with the outside of his right boot towards Byrne. Athlone centre-half Jake O’Connor tried to clear the danger only to slice his attempted clearance over his own keeper and Byrne who was making his first start of the campaign, gleefully accepted the gift to slot home his second of the contest and Longford’s third.
Longford launched wave after wave of attacks and missed numerous chances to increase their lead. On fifty-six minutes, Chambers left-wing cross found Mulhall at the back post and although he did not connect properly with his effort, the ball trickled past Athlone stopper O’Donnell towards the net, however, Rafferty cleared the ball off the line.
Longford did rattle the Athlone net for a fourth time in the fifty-eighth minute as a Chambers cross came back off the post straight into the path of Mulhall who nodded home his second goal of the game from close range.
Four minutes later, Longford should have gone five-one up as a pin-point Noack-Hofmann cross picked out the unmarked Byrne just five yards out from goal, but instead of completing his hat-trick, he inexplicably fired wide.
On sixty-eight minutes, the visitors survived a major scare as a Mulhall shot was brilliantly saved by O’Donnell and the rebound from Chambers was cleared off the line by Athlone substitute Williams.
Byrne then found himself with just Athlone stopper O’Donnell to beat only for the keeper to make a magnificent save and two minutes later Chambers struck the Athlone side-netting when he should have scored.
The scoring was completed on seventy-four minutes as Noack-Hofmann passed to Mulhall who set-up Galvin to fire home from sixteen yards to give Longford a five-one victory.
LINE-UPS
Longford Town: Kelly, Elworthy, McDonnell, O’Reilly, Adam O’Connor (Noack-Hofmann 45′), Chambers, Dervan, Zambra (Hollywood 72′), Byrne, Mulhall (Ryan 84′), Galvin.
Athlone Town: O’Donnell, Short, Rafferty, O’Connor, Fletcher, Boyle (Williams 51′), Grogan, Hamzat, Brilly, Nkololo (Davies 45′), McCullough (Walsh 80′).
Referee: Mark Lynch.
In what is surely a Midlands derby first, Athlone Town look set to travel to City Calling Stadium on Saturday evening (kick-off 7:30pm) without a goalkeeper in their squad.
Former Longford boss and current Athlone Town manager, Aaron Callaghan has hinted in the national media that this may very well be the case due to the fact the club are without their regular choices through injury and work commitments and that FAI rules permit the club from promoting one of the clubs underage players to the senior squad, while emergency deals are not open to amateur status sides, which Athlone Town fall under.
Teenage midfielder Luke Kelly played the full ninety-minutes between the posts last time out as rock bottom Athlone lost 2-1 to Cabinteely. Considering the circumstances in which Callaghan’s boys found themselves in, this was in fact something of a morale booting result for the Westmeath outfit, who have lost all three of their opening First Division assignments, included heavy 4-1 and 6-0 defeats to Galway United and Drogheda United respectively.
As for Neale Fenn’s Longford Town, it will be interesting to see how the hosts approach a game many are asking how large a margin they might win by as opposed to the result being in any doubt.
Regardless of outside perception, a win in this home encounter is of crucial importance for the ‘Red and Black’, who suffered a heartbreaking and somewhat cruel away defeat in Tolka Park last Friday. A hat-trick from club legend, Davy O’Sullivan downed the side ‘’Sully’’ represented proudly for five-years as the centre-forward converted two penalties, including a 90th minute winner to earn Shelbourne a 3-2 triumph over the 2014 champions.
Lessons will have to be learned both defensively, mentally and in terms of discipline by ‘’De Town’’, who had Dylan McGlade and Sam Verdon both dismissed during a heated encounter against ‘’Shels’’ last time out.
Action from last week’s heated encounter at Tolka Park v Shelbourne (Pic: Eoin Smith / extratime.ie)
Neither of those players will be available to Neale Fenn this weekend, while Darren Meenan sadly suffered a hamstring injury in the opening half of that game against the Dublin club and is likely to miss a number of weeks.
Longford Town manager, Neale Fenn, hoping for a victory in this weekend’s El Clasico.
Other than the goalkeeping crisis at Athlone, there is little team news to report at this time. Aaron Callaghan has opted for large scale changes in each of his team selection so far this this season, although he may opt for a more settled line-up considering the positive performance against Cabinteely, in which Athlone scored an equalizer, only to let parity slip in rapid time.
Callaghan is quoted as been impressed by the performance of ex-Longford youth, Aaron Brilly, who has also played for Cabinteely previously in the League of Ireland, while 2014 title winner with Longford, Etanda Nkololo is also a member of the current Athlone Town set-up and played in the humiliating 7-1 defeat at the hands of Longford at City Calling Stadium last season.
With a combined total of twenty-six goals either way in the six league games involving these two clubs and other opposition so far this season, get yourself down to the home of football in the Midlands this Saturday night if you want to be entertained.
Admission is just €10 for adults, €8 for students/OAPS and a bargain busting €5 for children under 12! Kick-off is 7:30pm.