Longford Town take on UCD in a shot at promotion

SSE Airtricity League First Division Promotion Play-Offs

After last weekend’s huge crowd for the final league game against Athlone in the 2026 season, Longford Town FC are bracing themselves for another bumper attendance for the visit of UCD on Saturday night in the first of the play-off matches, kick-off 7.30pm.

The second leg will be played in the Bowl on Tuesday night next (kick-off 7.45pm) with the winner going through to play the winners of the Kerry FC v Bray Wanderers battle.

Last weekend the Town were deserved victors in the midlands derby at Bishopsgate when a 33rd minute goal by James Bailey guaranteed the home side a top 5 finish and a place in the play-offs.

We are not being carried away with our progress to date but there is no doubt that our team have a good chance of getting through to the play-off final against the winners of the Kerry/Bray game.

The records will show that Longford finished fifth in the table after beating Athlone and we were on the same points as Kerry (52 points) but they had a one goal superior difference.

Bray finished two points ahead of the Town and Kerry while UCD were a further two points ahead in second position.

The Town supporters are really on a high and rightly so after the great victory over a very good Athlone team who had their chances on Friday night but were denied by an amazing defensive display and another top performance by our keeper Kian Moore.

Kian made some outstanding saves on Friday but he has been doing so for the season and he has a clean sheet against UCD earlier in the season, his former club.

As the last line of the Town’s defence Kian has been one of the stars of this new look Town team. The defence against Athlone were a very young outfit apart from Cole Omorehiomwan who would be the oldest in this youthful system. Sultan Adenekan has improved with every outing and with Cole, Taylor McCarthy and Jake Hough we have a very useful defence.

James Bailey, a recent signing, has shown that he is a threat around opposing defences and his goalscoring has given us another outlet when we are looking for penetration in front of goal.

Aaron Doran has scored many vital goals this season and we can expect Aaron to pressure the College defence as his runs from midfield are very hard to detect.

Some good news on the injury front was that longtime injury absentee Jamie Egan made a welcome return to the team on Friday last. Listed as a sub on Friday he was introduced late in the game as he came off the bench.

Dean George was also on the bench as was Dean Williams who scored previously against UCD.

The Town and UCD played each other on four occasions this season and it’s honours even after those games. The Town and UCD have won once and have drawn twice in the last season.

The first match between the clubs in March ended 0-0 at Bishopsgate. Forward to May and the Town had to travel to the Bowl and UCD won that home game 2-0.

The teams clashed again at Bishopsgate in July and on that occasion the Town won 2-1.

The very impressive Ciaran Behan gave the students the lead in the 21st minute. In form Dean Williams equalised for the Town just after the hour mark before Daragh Murtagh scored the winner in the 77th minute to give the Town a great victory.

The last meeting between the clubs was two weeks ago in the Bowl and that game ended 1-1.

The students went ahead in the 35th minute with what could be called a disputed penalty from Louis Dignam. The very impressive James Bailey scored an excellent equaliser in the 70th minute to give the Town a share of the points.

Playing UCD will be much different than playing Athlone and there is no doubt that this College team will be very fit as they are training full time. Over the years UCD have been the team to beat in the First Division.

Their keeper Dara Kavanagh is one of the best in the league and it’s very interesting to know his former understudy Kian Moore is now starring for the Town.

County Leitrim supplies the very impressive Eanna Clancy who is starring in the centre of the defence for the students.

The College squad includes many young and exciting players. Two of their star players Michael Raggett and Carl Lennox would walk into most teams in the league while Adam Wells also is showing amazing potential and he will also need to be closely watched.

Ciaran Behan is a very good player and he will need to be closely watched for the full game.

A very interesting name in recent UCD squads is a young local lad Goodness Ogbonna who is in his first year with the College.

Saturday’s game at Bishopsgate should be a very close encounter as both clubs try to play good attractive football.

We are expecting a huge crowd at Bishopsgate on Saturday night and with that in mind we are asking supporters to make a big effort to come early and that would help supporters to get through the turnstiles without much delay.

Section O Support

It was heartwarming to see the Section O support at the game against on Friday night and it was great to see many older faces back for the game.

Thanks to everyone involved and let's hope that we have a similar if not bigger crowd at Bishopsgate on Saturday night next.

SSE Airtricity League First Division

Promotion Play-Off First Leg

Longford Town v UCD

Saturday October 24

Kick-off 7.30pm

Car Boot Sale

at Bishopsgate on

Bank Holiday Monday

Gates open at 6am

Buy a tile in Bishopsgate

Longford Town FC have launched a new fundraiser and the proceeds from the project will go towards infrastructure enhancements to the club helping to build a stronger future for generations to come. The cost of the tile is €120. Each tile consists of 3 lines of up to 15 characters per line.