Tomorrow at noon, Longford will take on Lancashire in the Lory Meagher Cup at Glennon Brothers Pearse Park.
Both sides lost their opening encounters last weekend. Longford conceded a goal in the last minute of stoppage time to agonisingly lose to Leitrim by a point. Lancashire were well beaten by Louth with the English side losing by 2-27 to 1-10.
The sides met in the league earlier this year, back in February in Dublin, with Longford winning by nine points, 1-26 to 3-11.
Joe O’Brien top-scored for Longford that day with 0-11, while Emmet Corrigan registered 1-02 and Paddy Lynam scored 0-05.
Lancashire’s top-scorer that day was Dave Power with 0-06 while the impressive Simon Holland tallied 1-02. Their other goals were scored by Justin Cleere and Trevor Lee.
Although it was a comfortable victory for Longford in their league encounter, especially as Lancashire’s last goal from Lee was deep into stoppage time, the Exiles were missing six players that day.
Chief scorer Danny Connolly and centre-half forward Greg Jacob were big losses, while they were also missing David Burke, Shane Maloney, Shane Nugent, and Ronan Walsh. All are expected to be part of the Lancashire squad for their trip to the Midlands.
Longford will be favourites to win Saturdays contest, but they will be without influential midfielder John Mulhern who picked up a late injury in last week’s 1-point loss to Leitrim. Goalkeeper Conor Gallagher is also a doubt. On the plus side for Longford, influential midfielder Paddy Lynam returns from suspension, and forward Micheal Mulcahy is also available again.
Paul Barden and Daire Regan returned from medium-term injury absences to make substitute appearances against Leitrim, and they are also included in the squad for tomorrow’s game
Speaking to Tony Ghee, Longford manager Adrian Moran reflected back on that dramatic last gasp defeat to Leitrim.
Adrian: ‘It was a tough defeat to take coming so deep into injury time when they scored their penalty to snatch their 1-point win. We will just have to hold onto those leads to the very end from here on in. However, we move on, it was only game one, and now we have no room for error, we will have to win all our remaining matches to reach the final.’
Tony: ‘Longford again conceded an early goal against Leitrim, and Leitrim seemed to score their other goals at crucial times, when Longford seemed to be getting on top.’
Adrian: ‘ You look at the scoreboard and we got twenty scores to Leitrim’s thirteen, but goals win matches and we didn’t get any. We are creating lots of chances and getting into the right positions, but unfortunately we didn’t find the net with some good chances, and they scored four goals, and as I said, goals win matches.’
Tony: ‘Looking ahead to the Lancashire game. Longford won the league encounter by nine points up in Blanchardstown, but now they are travelling to Longford. They will have players back that missed the league game between the sides.’
Adrian: ‘Let’s not be fooled by the outcome of that game. Lancashire were missing their free-taker and top-scorer that day as he forgot his passport and couldn’t travel. Also, Greg Jacob got injured in the warm-up and did not feature. They are their two best players and will make a big difference for Saturday’s clash. We are ready for the challenge and prepared for it. We are looking forward to it and are confident of getting our first championship win.’