Longford Town in basement battle away to Kerry FC

Longford Town travel to Tralee this Thursday and go into a crucial game against Kerry FC at Mounthawk Park, kick-off 7.45pm.

 Both clubs are battling for precious points at the wrong end of the table. As we are just past the halfway stage in the season in our centenary year it's a bit embarrassing to be on the bottom of the table and this game gives us a chance to rectify the situation and pick up three points before the annual mid season break. 

This will be Longford’s fourth consecutive away trip and unbelievably it will be to the south of the country again  after trips to Cork, Wexford and Limerick. 

We can make lots of excuses about travelling to those four venues but there are no complaints from the Town manager Wayne Groves who has got on with the job despite all the problems he has. 

Going to Cork last weekend to play the table toppers, Wayne had to plan without team captain Shane Elworthy and then add to the list that has now grown to ten players.

The game in Cork wasn't the big hammering that was forecast due to the unbelievable injury list and other absentee problems. 

In fairness the Town could have conceded more goals but our captain and keeper Jack Brady was in superb form in goal. 

When club captain Elworthy wasn't able to play his place in the starting eleven went to 17 year old Guilherme Rego Priosti and the youngster did well against the very strong Cork side. 

Emmanuel James and Callum Bonner were introduced in the 72nd minute and the young lads alongside Vasyl Tropanets gave the side a very youthful look.

 Losing to the First Division title favourites on a two nil scoreline has to be taken as some sort of a positive but this Thursday is a different type of problem for manager Groves. 

After the summer break there will be a chance for some of the injured players to get back into the squad for the visit of Finn Harps on the 28th June to Bishopsgate. 

Last weekend Kerry were away to UCD at Belfield and for long periods the visitors looked like getting a shock result against the highly rated students.

 Centre half Clancy was the UCD saviour having scored twice for the students with the winning goal coming in the 95th minute. The very impressive Ryan Kelliher scored the Kerry goal. 

Last season Kerry were the whipping boys for most clubs in the league.

This season they have already accumulated more points to date and one stand out result was the 3-0 victory over the Town back in April down in Tralee.

Kerry came to Bishopsgate in early May and on that occasion the Town won 2-1 with goals from Francis Campbell and Luke Wade Slater. 

Last season the teams played each other four times and the Town had a fantastic record with three wins and a draw. The first meeting at Bishopsgate ended 2-0 to the Town on the 1st of April. On 5th May the Town travelled to Kerry and came away with a 3-2 victory and the next meeting in mid July ended 2-1 to the Town before the final meeting away ended scoreless. 

This season Kerry have a totally different squad as they brought in some experienced players and they also have a new manager in Conor McCarthy who at 26 is the youngest boss in the League. McCarthy replaces Billy Dennehy who left the club at the end of last season. 

Antonio Tuta is the Kerry keeper this season and he has made a huge difference and only last weekend he saved a penalty against UCD. 

Andrew Spain is a very good defender as are Daire McCarthy and Kevin Williams. Valerii Dolia and Sean McGrath are very good midfielders while top scorer Ryan Kelliher is highly rated.