Preview: Longford Town vs Monaghan Utd
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Monaghan United make their first trip to Flancare Park in years for their first meeting with Longford Town in the FAI eircom League of Ireland First Division this Saturday. Longford were relegated last season despite having the Premier Division’s top goal scorer last season, David Mooney, who has since moved on to Cork City along with Longford Town's ex-manager Alan Matthews. The somewhat depleted Longford side of 2007 were forced to start pretty much from scratch in compiling a team and their season so far reflects the recent upheavals.
In their first game of the season Longford ran amok on Sporting Fingal beating them 5-1 but their luck ran out thereafter and they could only manage two draws (Waterford United 1-1 and Kildare County 0-0) and suffered defeats at the hands of Dundalk (2-1), Limerick 37 (2-1) and Shelbourne (2-0). This has stifled their title ambitions somewhat, but new manager Aaron Callaghan will be hoping to leapfrog the Mons this Saturday with a victory as they sit one point behind United in the table.
United have a game in hand and despite the recent bad results, they are only a point off Limerick 37 who are sitting in 5th place. This will encourage Cooke and Co as they, if they beat Longford on Saturday, will be within grasping distance of fourth placed Sporting Fingal and still have their game in hand.
