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1st Division Airtricity League of Ireland. Monaghan United v Longford Town After collecting a very valuable point away to Cork City last weekend, Monaghan United are at home to Longford Town on Friday night. Both sides have commenced the season well. Longford in second place in the tables are just one point behind league leaders Shelbourne. United who have a game in hand are in 4th place just two points off the top. A win on Friday could see United take poll position in the table. Geographically wise Longford is the closest side to Monaghan United in the 1st.Division and games between them have always had a derby atmosphere, with so little separating the sides then Fridays games should guarantee the same keenness. Last Friday Longford Town had an easy win over fellow midland side – Athlone Town. All of the interest leading up to the game cantered on their recent signing former Northern Ireland International and Manchester United player Keith Gillespie. But Longford didn’t allow themselves to become distracted and they got down to business early with a 4th minute goal from Jacques Morley’s corner kick, but Athlone’s keeper Michael Schlingermann must take most of the blame for the score as he allowed Morley’s kick to curl in. Eight minutes later Schlingermann was involved in Longford’s second goal when after making a great save from Cathal Brady he l deflected the bal! l into the path of Austin Skelly who struck home. Had Longford taken all of their chances they would have been out of sight at half time. Although Longford started without their star signing Gillespie they did introduce him after 58 minutes but even his presence couldn’t add to their score line and his arrival probably proved as a much of a spur to Athlone as he did to his new side as they finished the half strongly and should have got on the score sheet. It is most likely that Longford will start Gillespie on Friday night against Monaghan United; his presence no doubt will be of a big interest to the fans of both sides especially those in the crowd who follow the sides that he played for Cross-Channel. Monaghan United’s manager Roddy Collins is too experienced to allow either himself or his side to be distracted by any side shows. Collins will be more occupied with selecting the side that he will be putting out against Longford. He will still have to contend with the absence of some of his more experienced players. Missing from the game against Cork City were his cap! tain Dom Tierney, Aidan Collins ,Paul Whelan and Alan Byrne, Conor Mc. Mahon also picked up an knock and didn’t appear for the second half, Tierney will probably the only of these players who will have recovered. But Monaghan have strength in depth and this they displayed last week at Turner’s Cross. United’s home fans should be getting their first look at new signing Fabio O’ Brien, those of us who saw him last week were impressed not just with the brace he scored but with his general all round play, his signing was definitely a parting present to the club by Mick Cooke. Collins is also bringing on his younger players, Local teenager Kevin Lougran has come on twice so far this season and he was on the bench of Friday night, the manager brought on another of his youths – Jimmy Fallon for the closing 20 minutes and performance belied his young! years, so we will probably be seeing some these young lads taking the field again on Friday night. Monaghan United should extend their unbeaten run against Longford. In recent seasons United would have taken most of the points in the clashes between the two sides but that said they had a few lucky escapes having leaked some easy goals. With their good start to the season Longford should come into this game in a confident mood. Verdict: Home win Kick off at Gortakeegan on Friday: 8.p.m
Injuries Alan Byrne and Paul Whelan, Aidan Collins Suspensions: Alan Byrne. Last Results. Cork City
Next Five Games Fri Apr 8
Manager Roddy Collins says, “I stated last week that we would be capable of getting a point at Turners Cross and that’s how it turned out and how close! we came to collecting all three. It also gave allowed me an opportunity from playing against one of the stronger sides in the league to get a better knowledge of the strength and weaknesses of the squad. If we are to do the business this season it’s this type of result in Cork that will count in the end. Again I was pleased with our overall performance and the draw did by no means flatter us, indeed it took a very fortunate deflection for an own-goal to deny us of a win with less than seven minutes remaining. This week we welcome Longford Town. Tony Cousins’ side has got a good opening they are second in the table, it’s their best start for a number of seasons. Tony’s signing of Keith Gillespie was a shrewd one, Gillespie will bring a lot of experience and I believe that he still has a lot to offer on the field and I know that he has many fans around Monaghan looking forward to seeing him. On their present form Longford will come here confident of continuing their good run,! so we are fore warned. Unfortunately we will be a bit stretched again this week through injuries, all the players that were out against Cork are still on the injured list. On the positive side Fabio O’ Brien made his debut for us last week and announced his arrival with a fine brace. I know the United supporters are looking forward to seeing Fabio playing in Gortakeegan. Another positive aspect is the number of young local talent that is coming through. Last week one of them Jimmy Fallon played the last 20 minutes against Cork and proved that he has a future with us. We have already seen his colleague Kevin Loughran and con! gratulations to Kevin for getting selected on Ireland International Under-16 side Garbhan Mc. Kenna is also in our panel and we look forward to him starting. Our side displayed a very positive attitude and played some excellent football despite the elements last week I am looking forward to more of the same against Longford”. Yours in football, Roddy Collins. |
Thursday, 07 April 2011 12:52