Another tough task for Longford Town away to league leaders Galway United

Galway have beaten Finn Harps 2-1 away with both goals coming from Vincent Borden. Borden scored again in the 1-0 victory over the highly rated Waterford side who were supposedly strong contenders to win the First Division title  this season.

 Galway beat Treaty United at Eamon Deacy Park on a 1-0 scoreline with the only goal coming from Robert Slevin.

 Last weekend Galway travelled to Cobh and they came away with three points from a 2-0 victory. Vincent Borden got their opening goal after 35 mins and the very impressive Ronan Manning scored the second. 

Galway gave Kerry a footballing lesson when they hammered the league's newest club. 

John Caulfield, who now has former Finn Harps boss Ollie Horgan as his assistant manager, is pushing to get over the line in first position this season and get Galway back into the Premier Division. 

Caulfield has a full time professional squad and the Galway club are reported to be putting in serious money to get the local team promoted to the top flight.

Manager Caulfield was very busy signing players at the end of last season with a new keeper a big priority for the team and he signed the experienced Brendan Clarke who previously played with St Patrick's Athletic and Shelbourne. 

The 37 year old has given Galway that experience which is needed if you are looking to go to the next level in football, meaning the Premier Division. 

Regan Donelon joined the club from relegated Finn Harps and fellow defender Rob Slevin also followed his former manager to Galway. 

Former Town player Stephen Walsh has been scoring on a regular basis for Galway and two other former Town favourites Rob Manley and Darren Clarke are both with the club and they are players capable of changing games.

French man Ibrahim Keita is another new arrival to their squad and he scored twice in the 9-1 hammering of Kerry recently. 

The Galway club's most consistent player is the much travelled Conor McCormack who is a very combative midfielder.

The former Cork, Derry, St Patrick's and Shamrock Rovers player is the man that makes Galway click. 

The very strong Galway squad that has Darren Clarke and Rob Manley in reserve plus at least another half dozen players waiting to get into the team to prove that they are good enough to be starting every week. 

Last season the teams met in the play-off semi-finals and Galway came out on top over the two games. 

The first game ended 2-2 in Bishopsgate but the home side had a deserved 3-0 victory at Eamon Deacy Park to go through 5-2 on aggregate. 

In the league meetings between the clubs last season the Town won the two games at Bishopsgate.

Galway won the May game at Eamon Deacy Park while the last league meeting in October ended 3-3 with both clubs using their panels before the play-offs. 

There is no doubt that Galway have the strongest panel in the First Division at the moment and they have as good on the bench as in the starting eleven. 

Longford Town must count themselves so unlucky to lose the game on Saturday night against Finn Harps as they competed very well for the full 90 minutes but not for the first time this season our play in front of goal needs to be improved or the team will remain at the wrong end of the table. 

The Town manager Stephen Henderson made three changes in the starting lineup from the previous weekend’s game against Bray at the Carlisle Grounds.

Gavin O'Brien, Francis Campbell and Stephen Meaney started as Boudiaf and Ibrahim were on the bench and Oisin Hand wasn't in the squad due to injury. 

In fairness when the four substitutes were introduced in the second half the tempo of the game improved and we should have got at least one goal. 

The game looked like a 0-0 draw when the referee gave the visitors a very dubious penalty and after looking at reruns of the incident it has to be said it was an awful decision. 

We all know that the Town management are working with basically a whole new squad with a few exceptions and it will take time to get a settled starting eleven. 

The defeat on Saturday night leaves us in the bottom three in the table. 

The fact that James Doona, Cristian Magerusan and Derek Daly have missed most of the season so far due to injury is a huge blow to Stephen Henderson and their return should strengthen the manager's hand as he tries to pick up points and try to get into a mid table spot. 

Young central defender Aaron Walsh is also out due to injury and hopefully he, like the other missing players, will make a speedy recovery.

 Apart from the opening game our defence has improved dramatically and have done so well against the teams in the top half of the table. Our midfield is very competitive and is a match for any opposition. 

Longford Town need to start hitting the back of the net on a regular basis and if that happens this youthful team will move up the table.