Longford Town -v- Sporting Fingal
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Sporting Fingal travel to Longford Town this Saturday and will looking to move back into second place of the League of Ireland First Division. Wins for Shelbourne, UCD and Waterford on Friday night will mean the pressure is on Fingal to keep apace. Longford on the other hand lie second last and a win for them could mean moving into 9th place.
Longford Town have failed to gain a point now in five outings in all competition, and you need to go back to March 21st when they defeated the league’s whipping boys Kildare County. Sporting Fingal on the other hand are undefeated in six games, and will be favourites to extend that run.
Last week, Fingal defeated fellow title challengers Shelbourne and manager Liam Buckley was delighted with the win but is now focused on Longford, “Last week’s effort and commitment by the players against Shelbourne was first-class and I thought we fully deserved our victory,”
“That said, it was just three points and this match against Longford is no less important. Manager Alan Gough is beginning to put his stamp on the Longford squad and a good match is in store. The pitch at Flancare Park is always decent which lends itself to an entertaining game of football.”
Fingal winger Conan Byrne believes last week’s display and result against Shelbourne has galvanised the group of players.
“We were disappointed not to win the game by a bigger margin in the end,” he said. “I thought we were particularly strong in the first half and didn’t look like conceding. That’s was our fifth clean sheet in a row in the league.”
The victory was all the more vital as leaders UCD dropped their first points of the campaign on Friday when Wexford Youths came away from the Belfield Bowl with the win.
Byrne said: “It turned out a good weekend for us but it shows that teams are capable of taking points off the promotion-chasers. This is a tough division and we won’t be taking any opposition lightly, regardless of their position in the table.”
Sporting will be without Gary O’Neill (groin) Daniel Corcoran and Lorcan Fitzgerald (both hamstring) while there are no suspensions.
Extratime.ie Prediction: Longford 0 – 3 Sporting Fingal
Longford Town have failed to gain a point now in five outings in all competition, and you need to go back to March 21st when they defeated the league’s whipping boys Kildare County. Sporting Fingal on the other hand are undefeated in six games, and will be favourites to extend that run.
Last week, Fingal defeated fellow title challengers Shelbourne and manager Liam Buckley was delighted with the win but is now focused on Longford, “Last week’s effort and commitment by the players against Shelbourne was first-class and I thought we fully deserved our victory,”
“That said, it was just three points and this match against Longford is no less important. Manager Alan Gough is beginning to put his stamp on the Longford squad and a good match is in store. The pitch at Flancare Park is always decent which lends itself to an entertaining game of football.”
Fingal winger Conan Byrne believes last week’s display and result against Shelbourne has galvanised the group of players.
“We were disappointed not to win the game by a bigger margin in the end,” he said. “I thought we were particularly strong in the first half and didn’t look like conceding. That’s was our fifth clean sheet in a row in the league.”
The victory was all the more vital as leaders UCD dropped their first points of the campaign on Friday when Wexford Youths came away from the Belfield Bowl with the win.
Byrne said: “It turned out a good weekend for us but it shows that teams are capable of taking points off the promotion-chasers. This is a tough division and we won’t be taking any opposition lightly, regardless of their position in the table.”
Sporting will be without Gary O’Neill (groin) Daniel Corcoran and Lorcan Fitzgerald (both hamstring) while there are no suspensions.
Extratime.ie Prediction: Longford 0 – 3 Sporting Fingal
