Tough task for Longford Town away against the title favourites Waterford

Before the league commenced last weekend the southern club that changed hands recently were everyone's favourites to take the automatic promotion spot, ahead of big spenders Galway United. 

Longford Town, on the other hand, are looking at getting a mid table finish or a play-off spot. A lot has been written in recent weeks about the lack of experience in the current Town squad and last Saturday night's result shows that Stephen Henderson and Gavin Peers have a massive job on their hands to keep the current team off the lower end of the table.

 The Town went into Saturday night's game minus three of the most experienced players. Defender Derek Daly, winger James Doona and striker Cristian Mageruson were all missing from the starting eleven against Athlone and there is no doubt that they would have made a huge difference against Athlone.

 The Town manager unfortunately came in a bit late and the club had lost most of its experienced players with many going to Wexford who got a footballing lesson from Friday's opponents Waterford. 

Waterford have a link with Fleetwood Town in England and they have three players over from them for the current season. Barry Baggley, Chris Conn-Clarke and reserve keeper Tom Donaghy are all here for the season. They also have Giles Phillips on loan from Aldershot Town who plays in defence and they also have Connor Parsons who is over from Wycombe Wanderers.

 Waterford signed Ryan Burke from Bohemians and he went into the defence for the south east derby game on Friday night last. 

Dean McMenamy, who had a great season for the Town when on loan from Shamrock Rovers last season, has moved down to the RSC and there is no doubt that he will be a huge success down there. 

Keeper Paul Martin is still performing well for the Blues while the very experienced Eddie Nolan is one of the best defenders in the league. 

Tunmise Sobowale and Roland Idowu remain from last season and they are very experienced players.

Wassim Aouachria helped himself to a hat-trick against Wexford on Friday night and his replacement Thomas Oluwa has a great eye for goal as he showed last season when playing with Athlone.

Ronan Coughlan, another established striker, came off the bench on 72 minutes to replace Chris Conn-Clarke. The Town and Waterford met on 4 occasions last season, the first meeting was at the RSC in the first weekend in April. The game 1-1 with Shane Elworthy opened the scoring for the Town on 38 mins and on loan striker Louis Britton got the home team level in the 94th minute in a game that the Town should have won.

 The next meeting between the clubs was at the end of May and the game was at Bishopsgate. 

On that occasion the Town were second best in a 3-0 defeat in a game that nothing went right for the red and black. 

At the end of July the Town travelled to the RSC and they came away with a tremendous  2-1 victory. Shane Griffin gave the home side the lead in the 18th minute but the in-form Jordan Adeyemo equalised in the 84th minute and team captain Sam Verdon scored the winner in the 96th minute. 

The final meeting between the clubs was in the first weekend in October with the visitors coming out on top in a 2-1 scoreline with Matthew O'Brien on target for the Town on 4 minutes.

Phoenix Patterson equalised for Waterford with a sublime free kick in the 14th minute and two minutes later scored the winner when Wassim Aouachria shot to the net. 

There is no doubt that Waterford have strengthened their squad despite losing Phoenix Patterson who has joined Fleetwood Town and is playing regularly. Waterford have made a great start to the season against a Wexford side that is expected to be pushing for promotion and there is no doubt that manager Danny Searle will get more financial help to get their team into the Premier Division. 

The Town more than likely will be missing the three players who missed Saturday night's game as some of them may be out for three to four weeks and that means that manager Henderson will have to rely on 19 and 20 year olds over the next few weeks. 

Jack Brady, Shane Elworthy, Aodh Dervin, Sam Verdon and Viktor Serdeniuk are the experienced players in the current squad at present.

It's great to have Aodh Dervin back in the red and black but he needs help in the middle of the park and he will be the driving force to get the club back in the groove in the next few weeks.

 The loss of Cristian Mageruson up front and James Doona in midfield is a huge loss to the starting eleven as both have many years experience and the same can be said of Derek Daly but saying that all the younger players will get playing time and they can only improve.

19 year old Darragh Lynch scored his first competitive goal for the club in the defeat against Athlone. Centre-half Ciaran Hodanu is only 18 and his defensive partner Oisin Hand is only 20.

The Town management team have a tough job ahead in the start of the season where they are minus the experienced trio.

Waterford will be very confident after beating the new look Wexford side and will be trying to cement their position at the top of the table. 

Anyone present at the game on Saturday night would see that we were unlucky and the result didn't do them justice. The next few weeks will show how this young squad is progressing.

Leinster Senior Cup 

Crumlin United . . . 2    Longford Town . . . 2

(After extra-time)

(Crumlin win 5-4 in the penalty shoot-out)

Longford Town were beaten in the Leinster Senior Cup with the manager Stephen Henderson fielding a very youthful team against Crumlin United on Tuesday night. 

The home side Crumlin went through in a penalty shoot-out (5-4) after the sides finished deadlocked at 2-2 after extra-time. It was 1-1 in normal time with James Doona scoring a cracking goal for Longford in the 17th minute.  

A tough game for this young Town side but very well done to Cian Clancy, Marvin Ikharo, Gbolahan Adejumobi, Callum Kelly, Tom Bourke and Moses Alabi on making the step up from the academy.