Longford Town FC • Official Website
Longford Town Football Club would like to confirm that Manager Neale Fenn has resigned from his position and the club wish him the best for his future.
Daire Doyle has been appointed interim Manager.
The club will not be commenting any further on this issue.
Ends.
Longford Town moved up to second place in the First Division table just a point behind leaders Shelbourne, after a brace from Dean Byrne and a penalty from Sam Verdon earned Neale Fenn’s charges a three-one victory over Midland rivals Athlone Town at the City Calling Stadium.
The home side took the lead on the quarter-hour mark when Verdon was inexplicably shoved over by Athlone centre-half Ciaran Grogan. Verdon dusted himself down, and calmly despatched the penalty, sending keeper Aaron Myles the wrong way.
Longford’s lead was very short-lived as Athlone were back on level terms within two minutes as the home defence were caught napping. Longford failed to properly clear a left-wing cross from Kaleem Simon, allowing Aaron Brilly to slip the ball through to striker Dean Williams and he poked home the equaliser.
Longford regained the lead on thirty-one minutes when Dean Zambra’s corner resulted in Kealan Dillon’s poor headed clearance being put back into the Athlone box by Paul O’Connor and Byrne brilliantly finished to the Athlone net.
The ‘Red & Black’ almost scored a third on thirty-eight minutes but Anto Breslin’s twenty-five yard free-kick struck the Athlone crossbar.
Longford Town started the second-half in whirlwind fashion and were again denied by the woodwork just four minutes after the resumption. Verdon’s exquisite curling shot from just outside the box on the left came back-off the far post and was gathered at the second attempt by Athlone keeper Myles despite being under pressure from O’Connor.
Dean Byrne grabbed his second of the contest and Longford’s third on fifty-three minutes when he created space for himself before rifling his shot to the Athlone net.
The home side created another good chance in the sixty-fifth minute. Aaron Dobbs released Byrne down the left, he skipped past Evan White, got to the end-line and whipped in a cross that was headed narrowly wide by Verdon.
Byrne was denied his hat-trick on seventy-seven minutes when he weaved his way into the Athlone box from the left only for his effort to be saved by Athlone stopper Myles.
Longford Town: Steacy, Elworthy, McDonnell, Kenna, Breslin, Zambra, Verdon, Dervin, O’Conor, Byrne, Dobbs.
Substitutions: Chambers for Verdon & Hollywood for Zambra (both 72 minutes)
Athlone Town: Myles, White, Buckley, Grogan, Casey, Kearney, Hogan, Brilly, Dillon, Simon, Williams.
Substitutions: Stokes for Hogan (63 minutes), Lotefa for Dillon (76 minutes)
Referee: Garvin Taggert
The red and black make the long trip to Cork today to take on Cobh Ramblers at St. Colman’s Park with a 7.00pm kick off in the seaside town.
Neale Fenn’s side come into tonight’s game unbeaten and having only conceded twice since the start of the season. A dominant display against Bray last weekend saw De Town earn a comfortable 2-0 win at the City Calling Stadium. Impressive form has seen Longford climb the league table and should we get another win tonight, the team will remain on top for another week.
Cobh have had an ok start to the season but have been impressing lately and will prove worthy opponents tonight as Stephen Henderson’s men look to continue their decent run of form. They had a great victory away to Galway last week, winning 2-1 courtesy of goals from the in-form Jaze Kabia and Maurice Nugent. They also had fine wins over Shels, Limerick (league cup) and Wexford since the start of the season and will be looking to gain a bit of consistency now with a performance against Longford tonight.
LTFC Manager Neale Fenn spoke to Tony Ghee last week about the upcoming fixture against Cobh…
“The few times we’ve gone down there, or since I’ve gone down there, we’ve found it difficult but you know, there’s no easy games in this league, you know. As long as we take care of ourselves, respect the opposition, we should be OK.”
In terms of injury news, Aaron Dobbs is out for Longford.
Peter Hopkins is on the cover of this weeks issue along with an in depth interview with Peter inside by Andrew Dempsey. 🙌
Also in this weeks issue ⤵️
✔️ Hear from Manager Neale Fenn
✔️ Captain Dean Zambras weekly feature
✔️ Opposition report by Kieran Burke
✔️ James Donnelly’s Editorial
✔️ and much more!
Don’t forget to pick up your copy on Saturday when we take on Bray Wanderers at the City Calling Stadium. Kick off is at 7:30pm! 🕢
#CmonDeTown ⚽️⚽️⚽️
cover image: Barry Masterson Art
