supporters club notes – Page 2 – Longford Town FC • Official Website

Supporters’ Club Notes (12/08/2018)

Sun Aug 12th 2018

CUP JOY

The weather in the north west wasn’t too good but beating Sligo Rovers in the FAI Cup yet again, certainly made up for the dismal Sligo wind and rain. We travelled up the N4 in great numbers more in hope than expectation. We managed to beat them last season, surely, this time they’d be out for sweet revenge on their home sod.

If our hosts thought they were in for a handy win, they hadn’t reckoned on a skilled, spirited performance from De Town. It was a real tough cup tie with Jamie Hollywood’s second half strike being enough for a sweet Town victory. In a game where all the players stood tall and proud, it was a hard task trying to pick any single player of the game. Mick Kelly brought off some excellent saves, Aodh Dervin ran himself ragged and Dylan McGlade tortured the opposition all night but it was a superb team performance. We had a bit of luck too but at the final whistle, many home fans were quick to acknowledge that we deserved to be in the pot for the next round. Indeed many home fans were loud in their disappointment at their own performance. They may have a much larger budget than us but money doesn’t always buy success. Once again, the travelling support was excellent even without the aid of a drum . Pity poor Kieran Burke who was about 36,000 ft in the clouds jetting homewards but we were happy to be on cloud 9. The romance of the Cup…there’s nothing quite like it.

Jamie Hollywood celebrates Town’s winner against the Bit O’Red (Picture by The Bit O’ Red Photography on Facebook)

PERFECT PRESSIE

The FAI Cup win was the perfect birthday gift for one of the Town’s hardest working and most loyal supporters, Liam Healion. Due to a secrecy clause, we’re not allowed to reveal his age but a smiling Mags said he was like a 30 year old later on. Birthday wishes also to supporter Ben Hussey who celebrated his birthday, earlier in the week, with an official announcement on RTE radio.

MEL’S RETURN

It was great to see Mel Devlin back in the City Calling Stadium recently following a spell in hospital. Everyone was delighted the jovial Mel back and looking forward to seeing that smile again at our next home game.

GALWAY AWAY

We’re away to Galway United in a massive game this Friday, August 17^th at 7.45pm. All of our remaining games are like cup finals; victory is vital, simple as that. If we can reproduce the display against Sligo, we should be fine. Anything less is no good. Once again, it looks like we’ll have a decent crowd making the journey west. Hopefully we’ll be smiling on the road home.

Supporters’ Club Notes (08/07/2018)

Sun Jul 8th 2018

BURST BUBBLE

Expectations were high before our game against Cobh.After all, recentperformances had been excellent and plenty of goals had been scored. The evening was perfect. There was a confident buzz about the City Calling Stadium. Plenty of former supporters filed through the turnstiles. Section O made a big effort to add to their numbers and had plenty of flags flying high. There was a festival on the streets of the town, the World Cup was on yet we had a large, expectant crowd.

But by half time, it looked like a different team to that which hammered UCD. If Cobh’s challenge was taken for granted, thentheir opening goal should have awoken us from our deep slumber. While Sam Vernon managed to equalise, we were carved open again and Cobh held out for an unlikely 2-1 win. While the ref wasn’t brilliant, in fairness he can’t be blamed for the under-par performance. We can do better and quite simply, we have to do better.

HARPS AWAY

A tough encounter is guaranteed this weekend when Finn Harps will “welcome” us to Finn Park. Their animated manager was an interested spectator at the Cobh game and Ollie didn’t leave the City Calling Stadium trembling with fear after Saturday night’s game. Each game to date has a bit of a bite and now that the Donegal men have leapfrogged us, they’ll certainly want to widen the gap. But then, we know that we have to produce a top drawer performance to remain in the hunt for promotion. It won’t be a game for the faint hearted but we’re ready. Bring it on.

DYLAN’S AWARD

Dylan McGlade received his Player of the Month award for June on Saturday night last. Supporters’ Club member Phil Pike made the presentation. Pope Francis might be flying in to Knock next month but few travel to and from the Mayo airport like our high flying Phil, who flies over from England for every home game.

MARTY’S RETURN

We may have been bitterly disappointed with the result against Cobh but there was one positive from the game. Marty Stapleton made a welcome return to the fold of Section O. Marty was almost a month in hospital in Mullingar. Despite all the World Cup games ontv, Marty wasn’t able to see any of them…there were plenty of screens in ICU but to Marty’s dismay, there was no TV screen. So he made up for it by taking in some live action on Saturday night last. Great to see you back home again Marty.

WHAT’S THE SCORE?

Work has recommenced on the restoration of our scoreboard. While it won’t be operational for the game against Oxford on Tuesday July 11^th, it should be up and flashing for our next home game. Well, fingers crossed.

BIRTHDAY WISHES

Heartiest congratulations to Pauric Connolly who celebrates a significant birthday shortly. Pairic has been supporting De Town, home and away, since he was out of nappies. A Town game just wouldn’t be the same without Pauric’s famous support and his voice is instantly recognised at grounds all over the land. This note writer used to travel to matches on the bar of Pauric’s bicycle and that wasn’t today nor even yesterday! Have a wonderful birthday Pauric.

OXFORD UTD ON TUESDAY

Oxford United, are our welcome guests this Tuesday night,July 10^th. Kick off is 7.45pm. It should be a chance to give the new signings a run out ahead of the Finn Harps clash. If we can hammer the students of UCD 5-1, sure we should be well able for Oxford too!

CAR BOOT SALE

It’s only the start of July but already people are asking about the August Car Boot Sale. Well, it’s quite easy really. It’ll be on the Bank Holiday Monday which we’re told will be a bright, sunny warm day. Hopefully we’ll have a good crowd and then we can afford the paint for the new scoreboard which is being paid for by proceeds from these Bank Holiday Mondays. Every time in the future, when you check the score, just think of the dedicated volunteers who made it all possible.

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.

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