Longford Town face in-form Finn Harps at Bishopsgate

Longford Town move from their usual Saturday night slot when they have Finn Harps as visitors to Bishopsgate on Friday (kick-off 7.45pm) as we come close to the end of the 2025 season. 

The club had to move the league fixture from Saturday due to the Republic of Ireland v Hungary World Cup qualifier which takes place in the Aviva Stadium.

With only seven games remaining in this year’s league campaign the Town would hope to keep in touch with the teams from 5th down as the club still believe that they are still in the running for that very important 5th position. 

At half-time on Saturday night last against Wexford FC at Bishopsgate, the Town looked as if they were going to get close to Treaty United who are sitting in 5th place. 

Finn Harps, who come to Longford on Friday, have pushed themselves close to Treaty and are now only one point behind after last weekend’s 1-0 victory over the Limerick club. 

Harps seem to be hitting form at the moment and that could push them into the magical 5th in the table. 

There has been a big change up in Finn Park since former star player Kevin McHugh took over as manager from Darren Murphy. 

It has taken the popular McHugh some time to get his ideas across to his new look squad and there is no doubt that he has them going in the right direction. 

We all remember McHugh from his playing days where he was a lethal striker and he moved into management of other teams in the club.

Talking about management I would like to mention Ollie Horgan who passed away during last week. 

Galway man Ollie was with Finn Harps for around ten years when he managed them in the First Division and he also had them in the Premier Division for 6 seasons. Ollie moved to Galway United a few seasons ago where he did a great job alongside John Caulfield. Ollie was a frequent visitor to Bishopsgate when he was managing Finn Harps as he could check out teams.

He was a real fan’s favourite and he is an awful loss to the League of Ireland and soccer football countrywide. Rest in peace Ollie. 

As stated earlier Finn Harps are on a good run at the moment and they are able to shut out teams if they get an early goal. 

Last weekend they beat Treaty 1-0 and the goalscorer, 22 year old Hans Mpongo, did all the damage against Tommy Barrett’s team.

 Mpongo is only with Harps just over 2 months and he has 5 goals in eight games. The Holland native can play on the wing or as a striker. 

The games between the club and Finn Harps have been close affairs. This season the teams met three times and it was impossible to get a winner between the two clubs. 

The first meeting was in Finn Park and the game finished 1-1. Aaron Doran opened the scoring for the Town on 26 minutes and J Bradley Walsh equalised for Harps deep into stoppage time. Harps ended the game with ten men as K Jordan was red carded in the 66th minute. 

Kevin McHugh has made this new look Harps team hard to beat and they are starting to draw big crowds up in Finn Park which is a hard place to get a result.

The other two games between the clubs which were played in May and early July couldn’t muster a goal in three hours between them. One can expect next Friday’s game will also be a very close encounter.

New signing Mpongo is their main threat up front while they have Michael Place and Conor Tourish in defence The very experienced Tony McNamee is still playing great football in midfield and they also have Gradi Lomboto to put more pressure on opposing defences. The Town team that started against Wexford on Saturday last showed three changes from that which lost 1-0 against Kerry the previous weekend.

 Eric Yoro, who missed the Kerry game due to suspension for an accumulation of cards, returned to the starting eleven. 

Osaze Irhue also returned to the team and he unfortunately received two yellow cards and was sent-off on 58 minutes.

 Kian Moore started in goal with regular keeper Harry Halwax on the bench. The Town began the game at a very fast pace and it was no surprise that they went in at half-time with a two goal lead after goals from Daragh Murtagh and Aaron Doran from the penalty spot.

 It could have been more at that stage as Paul Martin in the Wexford goal made a few excellent saves. 

Leading 2-0 at the break and deservedly so but we didn’t seem to come out in the second half and Wexford got back into the game with goals from former Town player Ben McCormack from the penalty spot on 54 mins and sub Mikie Rowe on 81 mins. 

The Town had Osaze Irhue red carded in the 58th minute as he received two yellow cards for tackles. The Town did well to hold out in the final 20 minutes when Wexford put on a lot of pressure. 

Longford boss Wayne Groves introduced five subs in the second half but one wonders why Emmanuel James didn’t get a run as his speed would have caused problems for the visitors defence. 

Once again a big thank you to our supporters who cheered the team to the final whistle. 

SSE Airtricity League First Division

Longford Town  v Finn Harps

At Bishopsgate

Friday September 5 

Kick-off 7.45pm

Republic of Ireland

Under 19s play Wales in a friendly at Bishopsgate

on Sunday next, September 7