Henderson ecstatic after Longford win

Cobh Ramblers manager Stephen Henderson couldn’t hide his delight on Saturday night after his side came away from Longford with all three points after a great 3-1 win over Longford Town.

He said: “We were very organised and had a plan; we brought them up the pitch and exposed them at the back. It was brilliant. We are actually very disappointed we conceded at the end. Overall they were fantastic.”

Henderson had a gameplan and his side executed it well; exposing the home side’s defensive frailties. This lead to their first two goals: “We felt they were very high and we weren’t making the late runs in behind them. We sorted that out and most of the goals came from that,” said Henderson.

What made the win all the more special for Cobh was the fact they were missing several players and other played the game despite sickness. “We were unfortunate because centre-forward Matthew Whelan is over in America and Ross Mahon phoned in sick on the way to the match. We have a few lads in there with a sickness bug,” admitted the Cobh boss.

The team that Henderson has assembled this season is made up of mainly local lads who are eager to play football. He’s delighted with how things have been going for them: “All Cork lads, all very young and very enthusiastic. We worked extremely hard this week. We had lads that pulled out for this game; we didn’t have our full complement on the bench. We had no centre-forwards to bring on. To go out and win the game 3-1 unbelievable.”

Despite inflicting a surprising defeat on Longford Town, Henderson believes the Midlanders will be challenging come the end of the season: “I still think they will challenge. They have a fantastic manager and coaching staff; that’s one thing they have and they have some very good players. When they get into their stride. Nobody seen UCD beating Shelbourne 4-0. That happened. This is what happened in this league. Somebody is going to get a bit of consistency.”

The Dubliner was honest about his plans for the season ahead. Despite making the play-offs last season a promotion push wasn’t the aim this season. He’s hoping to build though for next season: “We said we couldn’t invest money in this squad because the play-offs are gone. We’ve stuck with the youth policy. Maybe next year please God when the play-offs are reinstated we can go back to some form of semi-professional to bring experienced players in to help the young lads. We are basically a schoolboy side and that’s what we are. We don’t have a budget, even Cabinteely have one this year.”