Tag: sse airtricity league

MATCH PREVIEW: Athlone Town v Longford Town

Thu Mar 21st 2019

Match Preview by Tony Ghee

The first ‘El Clasico De Midlands’ of the 2019 season takes place this Friday night at the Athlone Town Stadium with the game getting under way at 7.45pm.

After a couple of horrendous seasons, Athlone Town have started this campaign in whirlwind fashion as they are third in the First Division just behind Bray and Shels on goal difference, with the top three having accumulated nine points out of twelve from their opening four matches.

Athlone’s only loss was a two-nil home defeat to Shels, but last weekend, they came away from the Carlisle Grounds with all three points after an impressive one-nil triumph over Bray at the Wicklow venue.

Man-of-the-Match and club skipper Aaron Brilly scored the crucial goal that secured the victory over Bray as he finished off a move that involved three former Longford players.

Darren Meenan joined Athlone from Longford in the close season and he supplied the pass to another ex Longford player, Keelan Dillon, and he inturn played the ball to skipper Brilly who slotted home past Bray keeper Sava.

Action from one of Longford Town’s games against Athlone Town last season.

Longford Town are the only unbeaten side in the first division with one victory and two draws in their opening three games as they are currently fifth on five points, however, the ‘Red & Black’ do have a game in hand over the teams above them after last week’s game at home to Galway Utd was postponed.

The last outing for Neale Fenn’s charges was the one all draw away to Cabinteely with Sam Verdon on target for Longford.

Last season, Longford won five-one and three-nil at the City Calling Stadium, while the other league encounter at the Athlone Town Stadium ended in a one all draw.

As well as Brilly, Meenan, and Dillon, Athlone have two other former Longford players in their ranks. Rhys Gorman who won the First Division Title with Longford back in 2014 and Kaleem Simon are also now playing for the opposition.

On the team news front, apart from Carlton Ubaezuono, all other squad members are available for selection.

Finally, for those that cannot make the game, Kieran Burke and Jon Brier’s Between The Stripes will be broadcasting live coverage of the big match on mixlr.com/betweenthestripes/

MATCH PREVIEW: Longford Town v Galway United

Fri Mar 15th 2019

Match Preview by Tony Ghee

Longford Town will hope to continue their unbeaten start to the season when they host Galway Utd at the City Calling Stadium on Saturday night.

The Town go into the contest on five points after a home victory over Drogheda and successive away draws with Limerick and Cabinteely, while Galway’s three points were earned courtesy of a convincing four-nil victory away to Wexford.
Galway lost both their home games against the two favourites for the First Division Title. They were two-nil up against Shelbourne after seventy four minutes but incredibly lost three-two. Then last weekend, Galway also lost one-nil to Bray with Dean O’Halloran’s seventy-first minute strike inflicting defeat on the Tribesmen.

Last week, Longford took the lead away to Cabinteely as Sam Verdon struck for the visitors, but a much improved second-half display secured the Dubliners a point as Rob Manley equalised on fifty-six minutes.

Screenshot: Longford Town TV (YouTube)

Neale Fenn’s charges will have to keep a careful watch on dangerous striker Vinny Faherty who scored against Shels and also Colin Kelly who has two goals in the opening three games. Big Galway centre-half, Stephen Walsh is a former Longford Town player and he is a quality opponent who is excellent both defensively and from set-pieces as an attacking threat.

The return of defender Kevin Knight to the Town squad means that Carlton Ubaezuono is the only absentee for the home side.

Goalkeeper, Lee Steacey had this to say about the opposition for Saturday night.



Match Preview: Cabinteely FC v Longford Town FC

Thu Mar 7th 2019

Match Preview | Cabinteely v Longford Town

by Andrew Dempsey

Longford Town make their first trip to the capital in the 2019 SSE Airtricity League First Division campaign for a mouth-watering clash against Cabinteely at Stradbrook Road on Friday night. (Kick-off is at 7.45pm)

Fresh off the back of three consecutive clean sheets and two wins on the spin, Neale Fenn gets his charges ready for a difficult challenge against Pat Devlin’s outfit who themselves have won their last two outings.

Longford began their season with a tight nil-nil draw away to Limerick at Markets Field before producing a stirring second half performance against Drogheda United on Saturday evening with three goals going unanswered in a three-nil win over Tim Clancy’s side.

Cabo on the other hand have surprised many with their performances thus far with Pat Devlin’s side impressing for the opening hour against East Coast rivals Bray Wanderers before falling away late on.

However, Cabo’s big result was against red-hot title favourites Shelbourne when they stunned the Reds in a barnstorming 3-2 clash at Tolka Park. Rob Manley, brother of Town defender Joe Manley impressed along with Marty Waters who is a major threat as all Longford fans know all too well of.

Tristan Noack-Hofmann in action against Cabinteely’s Kieran Marty Waters during one of last seasons encounters at Stradbrook, Pic: Ken Keenan

Most recently, Longford ran out one goal winners over Ulster Senior League outfit Cockhill Celtic in the EA Sports Cup with new signing Adam Evans scoring the winner early on against the Donegal junior side.

On Longford’s last visit to Stradbrook, De Town were edged out in a one-nil defeat to the South Dubliners with new Town signing Kevin Knight scoring the winner for his former employers.

However, Longford do have a pretty good record against Cabo under Neale Fenn with four wins out of five since the Londoner came into the Longford Town hot-seat in late-June 2017.

In terms of team news for Longford Town, Carlton Ubaezuonu misses out through injury but apart from that, Neale Fenn should have a fully fit squad to choose from at the south Dublin venue.

MATCHDAY 1 PREVIEW: Limerick v Longford Town

Thu Feb 21st 2019

Preview by Kieran Burke – @KieranBTS

The long wait is finally over as on Friday night, Longford Town will finally return to competitive action with a trip to the Market Fields to tackle recently relegated Limerick FC on the opening night of the 2019 SSE Airtricity League First Division.

So much has happened since “De Town” ended their 2018 campaign with a draw at home to champions UCD. Sadly, there have been some big name departures in the likes of Mick Kelly, Daniel O’Reilly, Sam Verdon and of course last season’s top scorer, Dylan McGlade. However, manager Neale Fenn has once again spread the net far and wide in terms of recruitment and in the likes of Lee Steacy, Anto Breslin, Conor Kenna and Aaron Dobbs to name a few, the former Dundalk and Shamrock Rovers star looks to have picked up some potential gems.

Anto Breslin, just one of Town’s signings through the close season.

In full, Longford Town have added no less than twelve new names to the squad during the course of a very long off-season and with some valuable pre season encounters against the Ireland’s very best in Shamrock Rovers, Bohemians, Cork City, Dundalk, Sligo Rovers and Cliftonville, it is hoped the squad can gel together quickly and get off to a flying start in what will undoubtedly be one of the toughest First Divisions in many a year.

Friday’s opponents, Limerick have had something of a turbulent few months. However, despite relegation last term, popular boss Tommy Barrett has been able to add some real experience to his ranks with former Longford midfielder, Sean Russell, re-joining the club after time abroad, while Robbie Williams and Darren Murphy are names most League of Ireland followers will be familiar with from recent years.

While Neale Fenn appears to have opted for a particularly young group once again this season, Tommy Barrett appears to have attempted to find a winning formula of youth and experience, with youngsters Aaron Fitzgerald and Karl O’Sullivan highly rated by many on Shannonside.

The Muster outfit played a number of locally based friendlies during pre-season, comulating in a 2-1 victory over the Irish army side just a few days ago. Whether Longford’s run outs against higher calibre opposition translate into a quicker start out of the blocks on Friday night remains to be seen but Neale Fenn must be pleased by the selection headache he is likely to have on opening night.

Jamie Hollywood, continuing his fight back from injury.

In terms of injuries, Jamie Hollywood has managed to get some minutes under his belt in pre-season as he continues his fight back from a serious knee injury picked up in Galway last season, while Dean Byrne is also back on track after an early end to his 2018 campaign. Peter Hopkins is another key man who suffered injury woes last season but again, the winger has picked up some minutes in recent weeks. New signing from Dundalk, Carlton Ubaezuonu is the squad’s only absentee ahead of opening night, having not featured in the lead up to the new campaign, while there are no suspensions to worry about this weekend.

There is no team news available for the hosts, but what we do know is picking up early points could prove vital to Neale Fenn’s side given the difficult fixtures thrown out by the FAI’s computer. After a long trip to the Market Fields, Longford Town will play in front of their own fans next Saturday as last season’s play off rivals, Drogheda United come to the City Calling Stadium.

Kick off in Limerick on Friday night is 7.45pm and Jason Mannix will oversee the opening night’s festives with the whistle in his hand.

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