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Confirmed Pre-Season Friendlies Longford Town FC can confirm four Pre-Season friendlies are scheduled for the coming weeks against First Division opposition. First up will be UCD in the Bowl on Sunday 21st February 2o21 at 12PM. We then take on Cobh Ramblers on the 25th with a kick off time of 7.30PM. Three days later
This Friday night at the City Calling Stadium, the second leg of the Promotion Play-Off between Longford Town and Cabinteely takes place with the game getting underway at 7.45pm.
This tie is delicately poised after last Friday’s goalless stalemate at Stradbrook in which both sides created good chances to win the contest. However, a combination of good goalkeeping, missed one-on-one opportunities, a disallowed Cabinteely goal, and a Longford Town effort that may or may not have crossed the line, all resulted in a clean sheet for both sides.
Longford Town almost took the lead after seven minutes when a Dylan Grimes corner was cleared off the Cabinteely line, an incident that sparked a debate as to whether the Town should have been awarded a goal.
Aaron Dobbs for Longford and Keith Dalton for Cabinteely both missed one-on-one chances with keepers McGuinness and Steacy coming out on top, while Paul Fox had a Cabinteely goal ruled out for offside.
Cabinteely had to play out the closing stages with ten players after former Longford defender, Kevin Knight, was dismissed for a poorly timed challenge on Town Centre-half, Mick McDonnell.
Both sides will be confident of success with Longford possibly having a very slight edge backed by an expectant big home following, however, Cabinteely have won two and drawn two of this season’s four meetings between the sides, including a one-nil victory at the City Calling Stadium back in May.
The potent threat of Kieran Marty Waters and the Division’s top scorer, Joe Manley, will give the visitors belief of scoring goals on the night and both will require close marshalling by the home defence.
On the plus side for Longford Town is the fact that they secured last week’s draw without the suspended Shane Elworthy and the ill Dean Byrne, while Aodh Dervin, Peter Hopkins, and Karl Chambers were all deemed unfit to start and had to settle for places on the bench. All of these players are now available to start the second leg with the only player out being the suspended left-back, Anto Breslin.
Action from last week’s scoreless draw v Cabinteely in the first leg of the playoff.
The winner of the match will have first leg home advantage against Drogheda United in the next round of the play-offs beginning Friday, October 18th.
Longford Town travel down south for their final league game of the season against Cobh Ramblers at St. Colman’s Park this Saturday evening with the game commencing at 7.45pm.
Cobh will finish the season in seventh place regardless of Saturday evening’s result, while a victory will gaurantee a third place finish for Daire Doyle’s charges which will ensure home advantage for the second-leg of the forthcoming promotion play-off tie with Cabinteely FC.
Town go into the contest on the back of a controversial two-one home defeat against Bray Wanderers last weekend, a game that resulted in Longford controversially finishing with just nine players at the final whistle after the dismissals of Karl Chambers and Anto Breslin. Dean Byrne had put Longford ahead before Bray’s comeback win.
Cobh impressively held Cabinteely FC to a one-all draw in their last home game, however, the Ramblers endured a heavy seven-one defeat away to Galway United last time out. Just like Longford, Cobh also finished that game with nine players after red cards were shown to Stephen O’Leary and Kevin Taylor after Cian Leonard had actually given the Cork side the lead.
In the earlier meetings between the sides this season, the first encounter ended in a scoreless draw, while the Town narrowly won the clash at the City Calling Stadium one-nil, courtesy of a Sam Verdon strike just after the half-hour mark.
Longford will be missing several players for the game as Karl Chambers, Anto Breslin, and Aodh Dervin are all suspended. Sean Boyd, Dylan Grimes and Mick McDonnell are all out injured, while Sam Verdon is doubtful with a minor knock.
This Saturday night at 7.30pm in the City Calling Stadium, Longford Town host play-off chasing Bray Wanderers in their last home league game of the regular season.
The home side secured their play-off berth with two games to spare after defeating Wexford FC away in Ferrycarrig Park by two goals to nil, as goals in each half from Dean Byrne on twenty-six minutes and Aaron Dobbs on fifty-one minutes secured the crucial three points for Daire Doyle’s ‘Red & Black’ army.
The last play-off place is between Saturday night’s visitors and Cabinteely FC with the South Dubliners currently holding a four point advantage over the Wicklow outfit, so a Cabinteely victory at home to Athlone Town tonight will seal the final play-off berth for them.
Last time out Bray recorded an away draw with leaders Shelbourne at Tolka Park and they possess talented players who can cause Longford problems with the likes of Dean Williams, Sean Heaney, and former Town favourite, Dylan McGlade in their ranks.
The teams have met twice in the league this season with both sides recording home victories. Back in April, goals from Town defender Mick McDonnell and winger Peter Hopkins earned a two-nil victory for Longford at the City Calling Stadium.
Dean Byrne celebrates scoring against Bray during the clubs’ previous meeting at the Carlisle Grounds. Pic: Ken Keenan
However, Bray exacted revenge in June at the Carlisle Grounds, when they stunned Longford with two late goals to win by three goals to two, despite trailing on eighty-eight minutes.
Derek Daly put the Seagulls ahead in the fifth minute, but Dean Byrne’s equalizer on thirty-one minutes had the contest level at the interval.
A Luke Nolan own goal on eighty-five minutes put Longford two-one up, but two defenders won the game for Bray. Killian Cantwell on eighty-eight minutes and Hugh Douglas deep into injury time secured the come-back victory for Gary Cronin’s team.
Former Longford Town midfielder Phillip Gannon is playing for Bray this season while manager Gary Cronin is fondly remembered by the Longford Town fans having been at the club as both a player and a coach.
On the team news front, both Aodh Dervin and Sam Verdon are suspended, while midfielder Paul O’Connor is rated doubtful.