Longford Town -v- Wexford Youths
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LONGFORD TOWN
Longford Town will be hoping to record their second win of the season over Wexford Youths when they welcome them to Flancare Park on Saturday evening.
Town extended their lead at the top of the table to four points last weekend courtesy of a 2-1 win away to Athlone Town and Limerick falling to a 1-0 defeat at home to Waterford Utd.
Longford know they’ll be in for a tough encounter against Youths. For whatever reason they have a poor home record against the South-East side; in their previous six games at Flancare Park they’ve just recorded one win.
Captain Chris Deans will miss the game through suspension, Craig Walsh is out injured while defender Noel Haverty, who scored against Athlone last weekend, is rated as 50/50 due to illness.
Speaking to extratime.ie Town manager Tony Cousins admitted his side have to be on their game for the visit of Wexford Youths. “There are no easy games in this league. You can’t take your foot off the pedal, you’ve got to be at it every week. The one thing that you get is tremendous honesty from all the teams so if you’re not honest enough to work hard you have a problem.”
WEXFORD YOUTHS
Wexford Youths travel to Flancare Park hoping to inflict a second home defeat of the season on the league leaders. Youths have been the surprise package of the season so far and are well capable of giving the Town a game.
Longford came away with a 2-1 win earlier this season when they met at Ferrycarrig Park but Youths had to play with 10 men for 76 minutes after Danny Furlong was sent-off. They’ll be out to avenge that defeat. They come into this game on the back of a 2-0 win against SD Galway.
Youths have doubts over both Nolan brothers, Shane and Brian, and they will be assessed before the game. Other than that manager Shane Keegan has a full squad to choose from. This is something that pleases Keegan.
“It makes things very competitive, we’ve a great selection of players and again used different substitutes last week than we have used in the past. It’s a hard job picking the 18 for the panel never mind the starting 11, which is a great problem to have.”
Referee: Darren Coombes (Dublin).
MATCH STATS
Longford Town haven’t got a good home record against Wexford Youths. In their previous six games at Flancare Park Longford have won just once; that win came in May of last year.
When the two sides met earlier this season in Ferrycarrig Park, the Town won 2-1, Daniel Purdy and Karl Bermingham with the Longford goals.
Wexford Youths’ biggest win over Longford came in November 2008 when they won 4-2 in Flancare Park.
BETTING
Longford Town 4/7; Draw 5/2; Wexford Youths 9/2.
PREDICTION
Longford Town to win 2-1 but Youths will make them work hard for the win.
Longford Town Injury News: Craig Walsh. Noel Haverty (doubt).
Longford Town Suspended: Chris Deans.
Wexford Youths Injury News: Shane and Brian Nolan (doubt).
Wexford Youths Suspended: None.
