Longford Town make the tricky trip to Ballybofey to take on Finn Harps

Longford Town make the tricky trip to Finn Park on Friday (kick-off 7.45pm) to take on Kevin McHugh’s team who are just a point behind the Town on 17 points from 16 games played.

Last weekend the Town played top of the table Cork City at Bishopsgate and despite being down to 10 players from early on the Town gave the favourites for promotion a great battle and they have to be complimented for their overall performance on the night.

Longford Town FC midfielder Sultan Adenekan saw red in the 16th minute for a dangerous tackle but most people in the ground thought it was a yellow card but the sending off didn’t deter the Town as the 10 men played out of their skins for the full 90 minutes.

The sending off could be termed as harsh but other incidents later on showed that the man in the middle left a lot to be desired in his performance.

The Cork captain Kelleher was yellow carded for an awful foul and some time later the same player did something similar and the man in the middle did nothing.

The fact that the man in the middle was the ref in last year’s FAI Cup final really leaves many questions unanswered.

One wonders what the referee inspector present at the game thought about the referee’s performance. We now prepare for our long trip to Ballybofey on Friday next to play Finn Harps. When we played Harps at Bishopsgate at the end of March the Town lost 1-0 to Kevin McHugh’s side.

The only goal in that game came from the penalty spot after the referee adjudged that Yacine Idir was fouled inside the box when everyone present at the game could see it was outside.

The Town were denied a penalty midway through the second half when striker Francis Campbell appeared to be fouled by Conor Tourish but the referee turned down Campbell appeal for a penalty.

It was backs against the wall for Harps who held out well against constant Town pressure for the whole of the second half.

There is no doubt that Harps are a strong physical side and they will be hard to beat especially in Finn Park.

Taking a look at the table after last weekend’s games the Town are in 7th place with 18 points. Last weekend’s victors Cork City have the best defensive record in the league with just 11 goals conceded, the Town have conceded 15.

Second in the table UCD, who were surprisingly beaten by Bray Wanderers on Friday last at Belfield on a 4-3 scoreline, have conceded 16 goals.

Last season the Town and Harps played each other on four occasions in the league and unbelievably all four games ended up in draws. After the surprise reversal when the teams met at Bishopsgate at the end of March the Town will be hoping to pick up three valuable points on Friday night even though the game is away.

When you look at the Town team it is such a very young group of lads but they are growing in stature.

The current Town squad must be the youngest squad that ever played in the First Division.

It’s great to have the few really experienced players, Aaron Walsh and Jamie Egan, on the subs bench for last weekend’s game against Cork City at Bishopsgate.

Despite the fact that we have one of the best defences in the First Division at the moment, it is great to have such top class and very experienced players on the bench on Saturday night last.

After this weekend’s game away to Finn Harps and next Friday’s home game against Treaty United, we will have reached the halfway point of the season and hopefully we will add some more points as we chase a place in the play-offs at the end of the season.

At this stage of the season we are sitting in 7th place on 18 points and just above us in the table there are three clubs on 22 points and just ahead of that we have one club on 23 points.

We need to be scoring on a regular basis and also moving up the table in order to be in contention for one of those play-off spots.

Support

A big thank you to all who have turned up at Bishopsgate for the game against league leaders Cork City. Over the years our youthful supporters were our 12th man. Thanks to our supporters from all over Ireland who made the journey to Bishopsgate on Saturday last and we expect a big crowd to travel to Ballybofey on Friday night for the clash against Finn Harps.