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Match Preview: St. Pats v Longford Town Longford Town head to Richmond Park this evening to take on St. Patrick’s Athletic in the 8th round of SSE Airtricity League Premier Division action. De Town go into the game off the back of a disappointing 1-0 loss away to Waterford, in a game that Longford really
Match Preview | Shamrock Rovers v Longford Town | 17/04/21 De Town go into Saturday’s game hoping to make amends for last week’s loss at home to Drogheda United at Bishopsgate. A 4-0 defeat at the hands of Tim Clancy’s side will have Daire Doyle’s charges looking to rectify their performance but it can’t get
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.
Match Preview by James Donnelly
The final El Clasico of 2019 sees Athlone Town come to the City Calling Stadium tonight, still feeling the effects of their 5-1 league defeat at the hands of the Red and Black last week.
With goals coming from Aodh Dervin, Anto Breslin, Sean Boyd, Peter Hopkins and Sam Verdon, De Town easily dispatched of our near neighbours with Athlone pulling back the single consolation goal due to a mistake by Verdon in injury time, a mistake he made up for by scoring Longford’s fifth goal from the penalty spot only moments later.
The turn-around time between games may not be enough for Athlone to change things up and possibly pull off a win tonight, unless Town boss Neale Fenn opts to rest key players ahead of our huge league game at home to Shelbourne next week. Anything can happen in the cup so don’t expect a similiar game to last week in Athlone.
Going on recent form, De Town are clear favourites with our win last week and a good win over Galway United the previous week, whereas Athlone have struggled in the league and had their last win at the start of July over Wexford FC at home.
Longford Town players celebrate Aodh Dervin’s opening goal during last week’s El Clasico in which De Town defeated Athlone 5-1. Pic: Ken Keenan
Speaking to LTFC.ie ahead of tonight’s big cup clash, Manager Neale Fenn stated how important it was to not dwell on last week’s game, as anything can happen in the cup.
“It’s gonna be difficult you know, forget the result last week, we might have caught them on an off day, it’s gonna be a difficult game, Athlone came at us last week for a period and gave us a little bit of trouble.”
Since Longford Town’s foundation, we have met Athlone four times in the FAI Cup, with two of those ties going to replays. Out of the six games in total, De Town have won five games with Athlone winning one. Our biggest FAI Cup win over Athlone came in 2004 in the quarter final replay when we won 3-0 away thanks to goals from Shane Barrett, Alan Murphy and Phillip Keogh.
Team news: Jack Doherty is OK to feature and could be on the bench tonight after recovering from his ankle injury. Other than that, Longford have a full selection to choose from.
