Longford Football (& Hurling) Thread

[LaurelEye]

Postscript: The new jersey was on view today.



Bit of a surprise, mainly because it now looks very like a Cavan jersey - blue with white number on the back, and three stripes on the shoulders. The only gold remaining on it is a thin stripe at the border between the sleeve and the main part of the jersey. Some people thought the blue was a deeper blue than on the old edition, but it may just be the contrast in colours on the new jersey compared with the old one.

[Billys Boots]

How did Hannify do, coming on for Ledwith? 

[LaurelEye]

How did Hannify do, coming on for Ledwith?

Good enough, but it was such a one-sided affair that it would be hard to draw any conclusions about anything from it.

[LaurelEye]

Peter Hanly Senior Football Championship

Round 1

1. Longford Slashers v Rathcline
2. Granard v losers of game 1
3. Ardagh v Seán Connollys
4. Ballymahon v Clonguish
5. Cashel v Fr Manning Gaels
6. Abbeylara v Killoe
7. Dromard v Colmcille
8. Ballymore v Mostrim

Not sure how the draw proceeds from there, but there will be a second chance for the losers of both the first round and the second round. One team will be relegated (presumably as long as that team's name doesn't begin with a C and end with an L).

Intermediate Championship

Two groups to be run as leagues - top two teams in each group go through to the semi-finals.

Group 1: Kenagh, Dromard, Grattan Óg, Killashee, Granard.
Group 2: Clonguish, Legan, Longford Slashers, Carrickedmond, Mullinalaghta.

Junior Championship

Four groups run as leagues - top two teams in each group go through to quarter-finals.

Group 1: Abbeylara, Rathcline, Mostrim, Clonguish, Fr Manning Gaels.
Group 2: Forgney, Longford Slashers, Ardagh, Dromard, Kenagh.
Group 3: Mullinalaghta, Shroid, Seán Connollys, Colmcille, Killoe.
Group 4: Moydow, Ballymahon, Carrickedmond, Cashel.

Allen Cups et al begin the first weekend in March.

[North Longford]

A few decent first round game sin the senior.
Slashers/Rathcline, Abbey/Killoe and Ballyymahon/Clonguish all look like good games.

[Shamrock Shore]

Billy will love the clash with the Swampies.

[Billys Boots]

Not as much as NL - if a Colmcille team can't be motivated by the prospect of kicking twenty colours out of a Swampie shower (anytime), then it's time to emigrate.

[North Longford]

Billy........that would be the hope.........but it probably works pretty well for our dear neighbours as well!!

[LaurelEye]

Team for Sunday:

Paul O'Hara replaces Kevin Mulligan, who suffered an ankle injury on Sunday (yes, Billy, that ankle). Necessitates some rearrangement of the forward lines:

Damian Sheridan (Dromard); Dermot Brady (Longford Slashers), Diarmuid Masterson (Dromard), Cathal Conefrey (Dromard); Declan "Cornadrung" Reilly (Colmcille), Enda Ledwith (Abbeylara), Shane Mulligan (Mullinalaghta); Bernard McElvaney (Ballymore), Liam Keenan (Ardagh); Paul O'Hara (Killoe), Paul Barden (Clonguish), Trevor Smullen (Ballymahon); David Barden (Clonguish), Brian Kavanagh (Ardagh), Pádraig Berry (Abbeylara).

[Billys Boots]

that would be the hope

I'm reliably informed, by the authorities, that when the Swamp Critters were Champions in 1999 that we drew them in the first round the following year, and kicked their holes.  Disastrously however, we didn't hate Abbeylara enough and lost to them in the quarter/semi and they went on to win.  Maybe an exploratory field trip to Legga might be good for the management team, to learn how to hate everybody equally.   

[North Longford]

Billy,

In 1999 we didn't hate abbey enough to get to the said final our dear neighbours won. A last minute Niall Sheriday goal ensuring a 2 point defeat.
Not sure exactly who we didn't hate enough the year after but we may have used up all the hate in our aforementioned victory!

[LaurelEye]

Well, we could have drawn it at the end but, equally, we could have been hammered today.

Monaghan were far the better team out there - not particularly classy, but fitter, stronger, more determined.

Goalkeeper - cost us the first goal by palming an incoming ball up into the air rather than catching it, saved us a couple of times, but generally needs to cut down on the showboating.

Full-back line - Masterson was the best of the three - at least he was the only reasonably solid one of them - but this area was a weak point for us last season and it still is. The other two had a very poor day at the office. Noel Farrell reasonable once he came on for Brady.

Half-back line - I may be accused of being biased but I thought Shane Mulligan was the best of the three here, but he needs to learn to control his temper. Enda Ledwith unable to catch a ball over his head and Hannify was a significant improvement when he came on for him. Little Dec poor today.

Midfield - very poor. Both liable to their usual idiosyncracies. McElvaney can say that he did manage to get the last goal from a goalmouth scramble, but it's worrying that there are no obvious backups at this position in case of any problems arising and that the trials didn't seem to uncover any. You could place Paul Barden here but only at the cost of weakening the attack.

Half-forward line - O'Hara not at the races and quickly replaced by McGee who didn't do much and who was eventually in turn replaced by Smyth who at least looks somewhat like the part. Smullen had to spend too much time in defence for the team's benefit but overall did more good than harm. Paul Barden was probably one of the two or three best Longford players on the field today and the only Longford forward who always looked dangerous.

Full-forward line - David Barden lost more ball than he got today. Berry rescued things early on with the goal, did a lot of foraging in a scrappy game and was probably the hardest worker on the team. Kavanagh was being hauled and dragged by the Monaghan number 4 without any action being taken by the referee until the end but seemed off-form anyway. Davis looked good when he came on but wasn't on for long enough to draw definite conclusions.

The amazing thing was that we managed to come back from 9 points down to 2, and that we could have drawn if Kavanagh had converted the first free and Davis hadn't tried to make a goal out of the second one, but for much of the game we looked shapeless and disorganised. A lot of work to be done for Sunday week.

Postscript 2: The jersey seems to have been re-designed since last week. The numbers on the back are now in gold instead of white, and there's a gold stripe on the shoulders along with the white ones. Looks a bit more like the business at least.

[Billys Boots]

Kavanagh was being hauled and dragged by the Monaghan number 4 without any action being taken by the referee until the end but seemed off-form anyway.

We never get much change from the ref in that kip anyway.  At least no-one was suspended this time.  Biffos in Pearse Park next in a fortnight?

[LaurelEye]

Kavanagh was being hauled and dragged by the Monaghan number 4 without any action being taken by the referee until the end but seemed off-form anyway.

We never get much change from the ref in that kip anyway.  At least no-one was suspended this time.  Biffos in Pearse Park next in a fortnight?

Aye.

[North Longford]

Lads where is Paddy Dowd.
To me he is the other obvious midfield option and was very good last year when playing as a third midfielder