Longford Town seek another positive result away to Bray Wanderers

Longford Town travel to the Carlisle grounds on Friday night to play Bray Wanderers who currently sit in third place and at this stage are preparing for the upcoming play-off games. 

This new look Bray side which has many young players who have proven themselves this season and they have 59 points to date which is four less than Cobh Ramblers who are showing amazing form this season. 

Bray, who are managed by Paul Heffernan, have brought in many up and coming players from their under age teams and also from other top teams in Dublin. 

Last weekend Bray played Finn Harps and in a rip roaring game they won 3-2. 

Billy O’Neill, who is a much talked about prospect,  scored one goal while the very impressive Max Murphy scored two second half penalties to give his team a hard earned result and three vital points. 

On the minus side they had Sean Brennan red carded for two yellows and he will miss the meeting with the Town. 

Last Saturday night the Town played the First Division champions elect Dundalk in front of a big crowd and they emerged victorious after a very impressive performance. 

The records will show that the league leaders Dundalk are still going to win the upcoming games unless there is a horrible loss of form. 

There is no doubt that Bray have many talented players in their squad and they are improving as the season progresses. They have 100% wins against the Town in the three meetings to date. 

In the first game between the clubs back in mid February in Bishopsgate the visitors won 1-0 and that goal was an O.G. by the unfortunate Eric Yoro after only 13 mins. Eric is undoubtedly one of the club’s players of the season to date. 

In mid April the Town travelled to the Carlisle Grounds and they got a right hammering with the home side scoring four without reply. C Knight, C Curtis, R Knight and Max Murphy from the penalty spot were the Bray scorers. 

The last game between the clubs at the end of July ended in a 2-1 victory for Bray at Bishopsgate. Young Billy O’Neill was the Bray hero, scoring the two goals in the 15th and 87th minutes while Daniel Norris was on target for the Town  on the half hour mark. Last season it was completely different as the Town won two meetings, drew one and lost one during a more prolific run of games against a different Bray squad. 

The Town need to win the game on Friday (kick-off 7.45pm) to add a bit of respectability to the current season and there is no doubt that our squad are capable of causing an upset.

Dundalk were minus Aodh Dervin through suspension, Horgan and O’Keeffe through injury but they have a huge squad and they were in a confident mood coming to lowly Longford on Saturday night last. 

The Town were missing team captain Dean O’Shea who has been superb all season and his captain’s armband was given to Jamie Egan who made a very welcome return to the starting eleven after an injury hit season. The Town won 3-2 and deservedly so against a very good footballing side and let’s hope that our team can continue the good form on Friday night at the Carlisle grounds. The Town goals on the night came from Alex O’Brien, Aaron Doran and Dean George. Recent signing O’Brien is fast becoming a fan’s favourite and he seems to have cemented his place in the starting team.

Wayne Groves has this squad starting to believe in themselves and there is still an outside chance of a play-off spot which is nice to see at this stage of the season. It’s going to be tough at the Carlisle Grounds but this Town team can achieve another positive result.

Longford Town have confirmed the contract extension of first team manager Wayne Groves until the end of the 2026 season.

Wayne has been in charge of the first team since May 2024 after a short interim period in charge.