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Mervue United -v- Longford Town
- Deniese O'Flaherty
- Fri, Oct 09 2009
Mervue United host Longford Town in Terryland Park tomorrow night (kick off:7.45pm), as both sides aim to lay claim to ninth spot in the First Division.
Mervue's 1-0 win in Newbridge last weekend all but sealed Kildare County's fate to the relegation play-off, and the three-team battle for ninth will now keep these two sides and Athlone Town occupied for the remainder of the campaign.
Mervue manager Johnny Glynn will be quietly satisfied with how his young guns have fared in their first voyage along the muddy waters of senior football, but is aware that progress must continue to be made:
"With only five games left in this Mervue's first season, we are not at all content with just staying up and the challenge from now until the end of the season is to finish above Longford and Athlone. We will pick from a strong squad which includes nine under-20 players, the youngest squad in the division."
Longford Town go into this game buoyed up by their 3-0 win over midlands rivals Athlone Town on Saturday night last. A win tonight will secure Town’s safety for next season, but Longford manager Gareth Cronin told extratime.ie that he’s expecting a tricky game in Terryland Park: “It’ll be a tough game for us in Galway. Mervue have improved since they came here (Flancare Park) back in July and we beat them 3-0. If we turn up and play like we did against Waterford we will beat them.”
Town go into tonight’s game minus the services of regular goalkeeper Danny O’Leary but in Aaron Shanahan they have an able replacement. Cronin is delighted that he has virtually a full squad to choose from for the Mervue game and the other tricky games ahead: “There is a 19 man squad there now, which is great. It’s good to have the full compliment of players as we approach the business end of the season. We are missing Danny but Aaron is a great keeper. The jersey is now his to hold on to.”
Last weekend’s win saw the Town move to within one point of Athlone in the table. The aim now for Cronin’s side is to finish ahead of their local rivals: “It would be nice to finish the league ahead of Athlone. Hopefully we can go to Mervue and get a win. At the moment you wouldn’t tempt fate but I think we are safe. If we beat Mervue then it’s done and hopefully we can go on and go on a decent run.”
extratime.ie Prediction: 2-1 Longford.
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