Longford Town host UCD in a battle for third place

Match Preview by Andrew Dempsey

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In the penultimate home game of the season, Longford Town host UCD at the City Calling Stadium in a battle for third place. Kick-off at the Strokestown Road venue is at the usual time of 7.30pm.

The game is a clash between third and fourth place as De Town look to intensify the pressure on Collie O’Neill’s outfit with a victory. Were Longford Town to gather up all three points, De Town would only be 3 points off the Students heading into the final two games of the season.

Speaking a few weeks ago with LTFC.ie, ahead of our previous league game at Cabinteely, defender Daniel O'Reilly pointed to this game in as a chance to claim third place in the First Division table. (Article can be found here.)

“Yeah, realistically we can get third. We still have to play Cabinteely and UCD and we’re quite close to UCD and obviously we are only one point behind Cabinteely so if we beat them on Friday we push ahead of them and then with three games left you just never know! We could finish below Shels or we could finish above UCD so it’s a bit of a funny one.”

Recent clashes have gone in UCD's favour as the Dublin-based outfit are currently unbeaten so far this season against the Red and Black. However, UCD have failed to register a win away from home since their 2-0 success away to Athlone back in May.

Last time out, Town were knocked out of the FAI Cup as Cork City came to register a 4-1 win at the City Calling Stadium in front of 910 strong crowd.

In the Red and Black's previous game versus Dublin opposition, Town came out on top with a 2-0 victory away to Cabinteely at Stradbrook.

Neale Fenn will have to make do without the services of captain Kevin O’Connor who is still on the injury list. On the other hand, Paul Skinner is expected to be back in contention following injury.

In addition to this, there are no players on the suspension list for Longford Town. Likewise, UCD also have the luxury of having no players on the suspension list.