Longford Town -v- Waterford United

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Waterford United travel to Flancare Park this Friday evening as they take on Longford Town in the FAI Ford Cup.

Longford Town have been Waterford's bogey team in the FAI Ford Cup competition. Waterford and Longford have met on five previous occasions with the midlanders having won out in each and every case.

In 1999-2000, 2000-01, 2003 and 2006 Longford came through the earlier stage ties, via the replay on three of those occasions, and of course there was the 2004 FAI Cup final, etched in the memory of every Blues fan, when two late goals, and two balls on the pitch, saw Town come back from a goal down to lift the Cup.

Longford Town beat the Blues in May in the league and will look for a similar result tomorrow night. Longford are currently third from bottom with 16 points. Town have won just five games from their 14 so far but defeated fourth place Limerick.

The Blues went down 2-1 to high-flying Dundalk in the EA Sports Cup on Tuesday. After an unsettled spell over the past few weeks for Henderson’s side and Tuesday's game was more about Waterford getting back to basics.

“It couldn’t have been any worse that last week to be honest”, Stephen Henderson told Extratime. “We had a meeting before the game and everything tonight was based on our performance. It was about getting back to what we do as a team. We worked really hard in the middle of the park and we won an awful lot of second ball.”

“Our movement off the front two that turned into a four was excellent, the interchange between them was brilliant. Liam Kearney was back to his best, there was a lot of really good stuff there tonight, so we’re delighted with that. We’re glad to have everyone back now and if we get a bit of luck with injuries, keeping players injury free and keeping the squad together, I think we can go on a run like we did at the start of the season.”

Extratime Prediction: Waterford to end their bad cup run against Longford and win 2-1.