Longford face neighbours Leitrim on Sunday in Glennon Brothers Pearse Park at 2pm in the Allianz National Hurling League Division 3B.
Longford bounced back from their 2-point home loss to Fermanagh with an impressive 9-point victory over Lancashire last Sunday at the Abbotstown GAA Centre of Excellence, winning by 1-26 to 3-11.
One more victory from their two remaining matches will book a semi-final place for Longford, while winning both games will give them a good chance of straight passage to the League Final, if they finish top-of-the-table.
Leitrim will be in a confident frame of mind going into Sunday’s clash, as Olcan Conway’s charges have won both of their first two league matches.
They eased past Lancashire with fourteen points to spare on a final score-line of 4-16 to 2-08, and then they came out on top against Cavan, winning by a seven point margin, 1-13 to 0-09. Both games were played in Abbotstown.
In the pre-season competition, the Connacht Hurling League, they lost narrowly to Roscommon by three points but they did beat Mayo.
2021 was a disappointing season for Leitrim as they were relegated out of the Nicky Rackard Championship (after having won an epic Lory Meagher Final in 2019, beating Lancashire by 2-23 to 2-22) and also finishing bottom of Division 3B in the League.
The last time Longford and Leitrim clashed was on Saturday, November 7th, 2020 in Round 2B of the Nicky Rackard Cup at Glennon Brothers Pearse Park. Leitrim edged that encounter by two points, winning by 1-11 to 0-12, a result that ended Longford’s six year stay at Rackard Championship level.
Indeed, Olcan Conway was the Leitrim manager that day at Glennon Brothers Pearse Park, and current Longford manager, Adrian Moran and current Longford selector, Clive Beattie, were both part of his Leitrim management team for that victory over Longford!
Throw-in on Sunday is at 2pm and there will be coverage on Shannonside-Northern Sound Radio. There will also be updates on the Longford Senior Hurling Facebook page, and the Longford GAA twitter account.