Longford Town in action against Shamrock Rovers in the Leinster Senior Cup

This year's Leinster Senior Cup is being run on a league basis with groups of 4. The Town are pitted with current Premier Division champions Shamrock Rovers, Athlone Town and Maynooth Town.

The Town are in action against Shamrock Rovers at the Dublin venue Roadstone on next Monday night, January 22nd, kick-off 8pm.

On Monday week, January 29,  the Town are also away to Athlone in the LSC and that game has a 7.45pm kick off.

Pre-season friendly fixtures

The Longford Town squad have been training over the last few weeks in preparation for the 2024 league campaign. 

As in previous years the pre-season will have quite a few friendly games against Premier Division clubs. The first game was against Drogheda United on Tuesday 16th in a good workout against the Louth club that has done well against the big spending clubs in the top flight.

It's back to Louth on Thursday when the Town play Dundalk at Oriel Park where a recent take over of the high profile club is expected to pay dividends over the coming seasons.

 Manager Stephen O'Donnell is in the middle of a big transformation of the club who have been at the top in Irish football for many years. 

Striker Patrick Hoban, who is Dundalk's all time leading scorer, has moved to Derry City and this transfer will no doubt strengthen the northern side's chase of the Premier League title. 

Those two pre-season friendlies will give Stephen Henderson an idea how his preseason is going and it will also give trialists a chance to prove that they are good enough to be offered a contract.

The Town are at home to Sligo Rovers on Tuesday night next, January 23, at Bishopsgate and kick-off is 7.30. 

On Saturday January 27 the Town play Shamrock Rovers in a pre-season friendly at Roadstone and that game has a 12 noon kick-off.

First Division kick-off v Finn Harps on February 17

Longford Town play Finn Harps at Bishopsgate on Saturday, February 17, kick-off 7.30pm in the opening round of the 2024 First Division campaign. 

News on signings

Stephen Henderson has been a very busy man in the transfer market in recent weeks, signing new players and also re-signing some players who were at the Town last season and previous seasons. 

Central defender Oisin Hand is back with the club for the coming season. Regular right-full Shane Elworthy, who suffered a lot of injuries last season, is also ready for the commencement of the 2024 season as is key central midfielder Viktor Serdeniuk. 

Bastien Hery, who joined the club last July, has also re-signed for the club. Adam Wixted, who also joined the club in July, also re-signed for the coming season. 

20 year old Francis Campbell who can play on the wing or as a striker has re-signed and he will hope that he has better luck with injuries as he missed a lot of matches last season.

The Town's exciting full back Kyle O'Connor has also signed up for the current season. Keeper Jack Brady has also returned to the club and he will be hoping that the big list of injuries for some players last season will have cleared up. Centre-half Aaron Walsh was also out for long periods last season due to injury. 

Ross Fay has also signed up for the season as has local lad Emmanuel James. Having come through our underage teams he is a great prospect and we hope to see him tying down a spot in the team.

 The club have quite a few new signings and we are looking to further strengthen the squad. Striker Dean George joins the club from Treaty United and two of his former team mates have also joined the club - defender Jordan Tallon and Dean O'Shea.

Former Drogheda midfielder Luke Wade-Slater has also signed for Longford this season while winger Sami Clarke joined the club from UCD. 

Sami previously played with Shamrock Rovers and St Pat's Academy. He played 13 times in the Premier Division with UCD. 

Midfielder Conor Crowley has joined the club from Bray with new striker Chris Lyons a very useful addition. The experienced attacker previously played for Sligo, Shelbourne, Shamrock Rovers, Bohs, UCD and Bray. 

Finally the club are delighted to announce the return of Karl Chambers who spent seven seasons here before his move to Wexford last year. 

The versatile player was one of the stars for the Town in the recent past. Karl will be so popular with the local fans as he always gives his best in every game he is involved in. There should be more exciting news on players in the coming weeks.

Pre-Season Friendly

Longford Town v Sligo Rovers

Bishopsgate on Tuesday January 23

Kick-off 7.30pm

As Longford Town FC get ready to celebrate its centenary year it was nice to chat to two former greats at Abbeycartron recently Jim Sheridan (left) and Jimmy Savage (pictured). Jimmy was the only local on that famous day back in 1969 when Longford Town beat Sligo Rovers in the FAI Cup at the Greyhound Park
Jim played with Finn Harps, St Pat's and Sligo Rovers and was capped for Ireland at amateur level. Jim, a Garda based in Leitrim, played in the Leinster League with the Longford Town.
According to Jim the most enjoyable football he played was in the Town League when he played with the late Tony Flaherty for a team called Fondermans.