Longford senior football manager Paddy Christie in a positive frame of mind

Despite winning the O’Byrne Cup last year, it was a disappointing 2023 campaign for Longford as they were relegated from Division 3 and then lost by a point to Offaly in the Leinster Senior Football Championship, later followed by a defeat away to Down in the Tailteann Cup exit.

Speaking to the Leader after Saturday's victory over Westmeath in the O’Byrne Cup in setting up a semi-final clash against Meath in Ashbourne this Friday night (throw-in 7.30pm), the Longford manager Paddy Christie acknowledged that while it’s important to win these matches, it is no guarantee of success in the bigger competitions as was proven last year.

“We are delighted with the victory, but last year despite winning the O’Byrne Cup, ultimately, we had a poor year and people were asking what good was winning the O’Byrne Cup when it didn’t act as a springboard in the other competitions. 

“From our perspective it is always important to win these games, especially such a close contest as this. Last year we lost a lot of games, a good few were narrow defeats and we got into the habit of losing tight games, whereas today we won a tight game.

“If we can go on to win the competition again and give all our players valuable playing time, especially the younger players who have joined the squad this year, it will be a major positive for us.

“Today there were a number of debutants and I thought the likes of Oisin O’Toole and Bryn Peters played well as did Cathal McCabe who won a lot of dirty ball, was physically strong and used his low centre of gravity to great effect. We blew hot and cold at different times, but it’s nice to get the season up and running.”

A much more direct style was implemented against Westmeath on Saturday with the lateral possession football only played at crucial times when game management was needed. When asked about this Christie acknowledged that it’s about getting the balance right.

“Sometimes possession football is needed especially when playing against a blanket defence and you have to wait for the opportunities to present themselves.

 “We have been telling the players to play with their heads up and if the ball into the likes of Bryn Peters, Cathal McCabe and Jayson Matthews is on, to deliver it into them and that will give them the confidence to constantly make runs to pose problems for opposing defences. 

“If they feel redundant, they will stop making those runs as they will believe it’s a futile exercise, so it’s important to get the balance right between the two styles. Lateral football is not nice to look at but sometimes it is needed and yes, the players played it at the right times today and that is their credit.”

The Longford manager then went on to talk about some of the players who were missing from Saturday's match day squad.

“Mickey Quinn has a small injury so we are just trying to be careful with him and we are very hopeful that he will be available when it matters in the crunch games and that he will be central to our plans.

 “Andrew Farrell has an injury that we will have to monitor and we are unsure as to when he will be able to feature. A lot of the older players were following different training plans before Christmas and hopefully, they will all be on the same training plans soon in the run up to our opening league game away to Laois.”

When asked about the comings and goings within the backroom team, Christie first welcomed the addition of new selector and Longford man Cosmas Gilmore who had a reputation of having a brilliant football brain during his time involved with both the Galway minors and the Galway Under 20 teams.

“We are delighted to have him. He was involved with his club Barna and the Galway County underage teams for several years and helped Galway to an All-Ireland Under 20 title when beating Dublin in the final in 2020. 

“He is vastly experienced and he is a Longford man through and through. He has already added a huge amount to the set-up already, despite only being involved for a few weeks, and the players have all reacted very well to him.

 “When you add new members to the backroom team you are looking for them to add something extra into the mix and he has done that. Dessie Sloyan and Sean Fox remain as very important members of the backroom team.  

“We did lose James Glancy for personal reasons and Michael Kenny has a new role within Longford GAA. Gareth Johnston came in for the new season as a selector but he is not involved anymore.

“Most counties will see comings and goings within the playing panel and the backroom team each season, especially in the smaller counties but that is part of the game. The key thing is that when you lose high quality members of your backroom team like we have, you must replace them with high quality people and we have done that.”