League Preview: Longford Town -v- Galway United

Longford Town welcome mid-table rivals Galway United to the City Calling Stadium this Friday. Kick-off is 7.45pm.

LONGFORD TOWN

Longford Town will be hoping for three points after the final whistle so they can continue their chase of fourth and fifth place St Patrick’s Athletic and Bohemians. Da Town are nine points below in sixth but have a game in hand on the sides above. With St Pats inconsistent and Bohs hit by injuries, Longford could sneak above if they keep up their recent form.

Two 1-0 wins in tough away games to Limerick and Bray have helped keep Longford in their sixth place. Aymen Ben Mohamed scored his first goal of the season in the game against Bray and he becomes the eighth different scorer this season. With Longford only scoring sixteen goals this season, the team will need to keep up this spreading out of goals until someone can take the reins.

Longford have the upper hand against Galway in recent fixtures, winning the earlier encounter this season 2-1 thanks to a late Don Cowan strike. Last season, Longford won two out of the four games between the sides in the First Division while Galway won one. The other ended as a 2-2 draw.

GALWAY UNITED

Galway enter the game on the back of two straight losses in the league and will be hoping to change that at the City Calling Stadium. They currently sit eighth in the league table on fifteen points but could drop down to tenth if they lose another game, with Sligo and Derry potentially leapfrogging them. Tommy Dunne acknowledged this when speaking to galwayunitedfc.ie, saying, “We need to get back on track.”

While the sides met last season in the First Division, the Galway manager said it would be different now. Dunne said, “We’re going to a ground where we had reasonable results last season, but we know it’s a different game on Friday night,” before he added that, “Longford will be looking to continue their own push up the table also.”

Dunne then said that, “Longford are a good side, they’ve come up and picked up some excellent results and Tony has them well organised and they’ve got threats that can do damage to teams in this league.” Galway will be without Andy O’Connell for the match as he is sidelined with a foot injury.

Referee: Sean Grant

MATCH STATS

Galway are yet to draw a game this season, having won five and lost ten.

Longford have only scored six goals at home this season, but have only conceded seven. Galway have scored seven times on their travels but also conceded twelve.

In the seven away league games Galway have played in, one side ends up not scoring. Galway have shut out the opponent.twice but have been shut out themselves five times.

.

BETTING

Longford Town 11/10; Draw 11/5; Galway United 13/5

PREDICTION

Longford Town 2-2 Galway United

Longford Town

Injured: Unknown

Doubtful: Unknown

Suspended: None

Galway United

Injured: Andy O’Connell

Doubtful: None

Suspended: None