Longford Town FC -v- Kildare County FC
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Longford Town and Kildare County will both be looking for their first win of the season when they meet at Flancare Park on Saturday evening (kick-off 7.30pm). The pair lie on one point each after their opening two games despite showing plenty of promise over the past fortnight.
Longford implosion
Longford started the season with a bang as they led Monaghan United 3-0 after less than 15 minutes on the opening day. However, they remain winless after surrendering that three-goal lead and losing 1-0 at Finn Harps last week, a game which turned sour for the Midlanders late on as they conceded and had two men sent off in the space of four minutes.
Gelling period
"Though I was extremely disappointed with the result, I couldn’t praise the lads enough for their performance and work rate," Longford boss Alan Gough said after the defeat at Finn Park. "Having two players sent off was a massive setback but it didn’t affect the effort or concentration. It’s a new squad and a new team and it will take a few weeks for things to gel properly.
Kildare warning
"But, as I said before, we will be as competitive as we can in every game and we would hope that will bring its own rewards," he added. "[Kildare] really put it up to Finn Harps on the opening weekend, and the backbone of Harps' team is Premier Division. They took the lead the following week against Athlone Town and Athone’s 3-1 win was extremely flattering to them.”
Losing leads
Kildare, for their part, have lost leads in both their games to date, allowing Harps to snatch a 1-1 draw at Station Road two weeks ago before losing at Athlone Town last weekend. "We can’t give away goals like we did [last week]," Kildare manager Thomas 'Cooper' Donnelly said. "You wouldn’t see it at Under-10 level to be honest. The one positive that we took from the game is that we did not receive any new injuries – we have been hit hard by injuries. I am not putting that forward as an excuse but it is hard to get some rhythm when we keep chopping and changing."
Town depleted
Longford will be without Stephen Gough and Liam Lynch who both serve automatic one-match bans after last week's dismissals, Adrian Murphy is a certain absentee, while Brian McCarthy, Carmine Russo and Jim Sheridan are injury doubts. Kildare, meanwhile, welcome back Colin Murray and Matt Byrne, while David O’Riordan and Orrin Farrell, though not yet ready, could return for next week's visit of Sporting Fingal.
Longford implosion
Longford started the season with a bang as they led Monaghan United 3-0 after less than 15 minutes on the opening day. However, they remain winless after surrendering that three-goal lead and losing 1-0 at Finn Harps last week, a game which turned sour for the Midlanders late on as they conceded and had two men sent off in the space of four minutes.
Gelling period
"Though I was extremely disappointed with the result, I couldn’t praise the lads enough for their performance and work rate," Longford boss Alan Gough said after the defeat at Finn Park. "Having two players sent off was a massive setback but it didn’t affect the effort or concentration. It’s a new squad and a new team and it will take a few weeks for things to gel properly.
Kildare warning
"But, as I said before, we will be as competitive as we can in every game and we would hope that will bring its own rewards," he added. "[Kildare] really put it up to Finn Harps on the opening weekend, and the backbone of Harps' team is Premier Division. They took the lead the following week against Athlone Town and Athone’s 3-1 win was extremely flattering to them.”
Losing leads
Kildare, for their part, have lost leads in both their games to date, allowing Harps to snatch a 1-1 draw at Station Road two weeks ago before losing at Athlone Town last weekend. "We can’t give away goals like we did [last week]," Kildare manager Thomas 'Cooper' Donnelly said. "You wouldn’t see it at Under-10 level to be honest. The one positive that we took from the game is that we did not receive any new injuries – we have been hit hard by injuries. I am not putting that forward as an excuse but it is hard to get some rhythm when we keep chopping and changing."
Town depleted
Longford will be without Stephen Gough and Liam Lynch who both serve automatic one-match bans after last week's dismissals, Adrian Murphy is a certain absentee, while Brian McCarthy, Carmine Russo and Jim Sheridan are injury doubts. Kildare, meanwhile, welcome back Colin Murray and Matt Byrne, while David O’Riordan and Orrin Farrell, though not yet ready, could return for next week's visit of Sporting Fingal.
