Callaghan proud of his side despite cup exit
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Although disappointed to be out of the FAI Cup Longford Town manager Aaron Callaghan was delighted with his team's performance against Premier Division side St. Patrick's Athletic. Pat's were favourites to advance to the next round of the cup but the Town made them work hard for their 2-1 win. "I'm happy with the performance but disappointed with the result." Callaghan said. "I was happy with the players' attitude and a lot of things went right tonight. They say you need a bit of luck to win a cup and we certainly didn't get any of that tonight. They scored against the run of play in relation to the fact that we had only 10 players on the park, we didn't want to substitute Darren for obvious reasons. That knocked us back and they scored when he was off the park. These things happen but we showed great character, great commitment and desire to get back in the game."
It was the home side who bossed the first half and such was their superiority that Longford Town were limited to just one real attempt on goal. In the opening minutes after the break the Town took the game to their opponents and deservedly got an equaliser. But their joy was short lived because less than a minute later Pat's were back in front: "It was unfortunate for Ronan (Frawley) he misplaced the pass after trying to control the ball - one of our most consistent players this year - great save from Gally and they score from the rebound. Obviously when we scored we needed to keep it for five or ten minutes which we didn't and fair play to them."
Callaghan had hoped the goal would turn the game around for his side: "I thought when we got the goal we were worthy of a one all draw. We started the second half very good, we obviously tired in the last fifteen minutes but we wanted to win it. We had to take a chance but we didn't get the second goal, we had a couple of half chances and it just wasn't to be."
The Town showed real character and spirit throughout the game and the Town boss is proud of his team. There are plenty of positives that both he and the players can take out of the game: "I've got to take all the positives out of the game. We've had some good performances of late. I'm proud of every one of them. The performance was absolutely outstanding and hopefully the travelling support that was there will acknowledge that we gave it a good go but over the 90 minutes it just didn't work out.
"On our bench we had about four or five appearances between them. I said to them after the game that sometimes you need to have a bit of a setback to move forward and they had a setback slightly tonight. They are disappointed that they didn't get something out of the game. It would've been good for the club if we had brought them back for a replay.
It's a new beginning at the moment at Longford Town. Relegation to the First Division at the end of last season the club found themselves without a manager and just three members of last season's squad left. Callaghan took over at the start of the season and is trying to build for the future by giving youth and local lads a chance: "We are an evolving team. We weren't going to build a team over night, it's still evolving and a lot of players are starting to take on board what it is I want at the club. Fitness levels are improving too."
