Longford Town -v- Finn Harps
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Manager-less Longford Town have home advantage in tonight's First Division clash with Finn Harps at Flancare Park (7.30pm). The Midlands team parted company with Alan Gough following last weekend's 2-0 league defeat against Monaghan United. Assistant Manager Philip Coffee will take charge in the dugout tonight hoping to see his side end a run of results which has seen them fail to win in ten matches. The team who featured in an FAI Cup final just 18 months ago last picked up three points in March when they put four past hapless Kildare County.
The two sides lie 10th and 11th respectively in the table, Kildare's epic ineptitude at this level representing the sole bulwark against their ignominy. Before last week's narrow win against the bottom club, Harps had only won on one other occasion this season, coincidently against Longford in the second series of games. Conor Gethins scored the winner on that occasion and the Ballybofey outfit will need him on form tonight to have any chance of taking something from the game, the Lifford man having found the net a further six times since then to become his club's top goal scorer.
Harps manager James Gallagher has the luxury of a full strength squad to choose from. Marc Mukendi and Michael Funston return from suspension while Ian Rossiter has recovered from the bruised foot that kept him out of last weeks' game at Finn Park: “If we can get the same effort and commitment from the players that we got last weekend we will have a great chance of picking up a result. I will have a full squad to pick from so it gives me a selection headache in a positive sense.”
A Longford win would see them move to within two points of their Donegal rivals, while Gallagher's men can jump two places to eighth if they manage to grab the points. In any other season this would be a dogfight at the foot of the table but with Kildare patently unequipped for this season, both teams know that they will most likely stay up this season with a points total that would have seen them go down in any other season. While fans of either side would be unlikely to worry too much about that, this year's First Division is poorer for that fact.
Extratime.ie Prediction: Longford Town 1-2 Finn Harps With clean sheets few and far between for these two sides, expect goals at Flancare Park evening. Finn Harps should do enough to pick up a second consecutive win against a side in disarray with no manager to impress.
The two sides lie 10th and 11th respectively in the table, Kildare's epic ineptitude at this level representing the sole bulwark against their ignominy. Before last week's narrow win against the bottom club, Harps had only won on one other occasion this season, coincidently against Longford in the second series of games. Conor Gethins scored the winner on that occasion and the Ballybofey outfit will need him on form tonight to have any chance of taking something from the game, the Lifford man having found the net a further six times since then to become his club's top goal scorer.
Harps manager James Gallagher has the luxury of a full strength squad to choose from. Marc Mukendi and Michael Funston return from suspension while Ian Rossiter has recovered from the bruised foot that kept him out of last weeks' game at Finn Park: “If we can get the same effort and commitment from the players that we got last weekend we will have a great chance of picking up a result. I will have a full squad to pick from so it gives me a selection headache in a positive sense.”
A Longford win would see them move to within two points of their Donegal rivals, while Gallagher's men can jump two places to eighth if they manage to grab the points. In any other season this would be a dogfight at the foot of the table but with Kildare patently unequipped for this season, both teams know that they will most likely stay up this season with a points total that would have seen them go down in any other season. While fans of either side would be unlikely to worry too much about that, this year's First Division is poorer for that fact.
Extratime.ie Prediction: Longford Town 1-2 Finn Harps With clean sheets few and far between for these two sides, expect goals at Flancare Park evening. Finn Harps should do enough to pick up a second consecutive win against a side in disarray with no manager to impress.
