News & Match Preview – v Longford Town

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Longford Town v Shelbourne

SSE Airtricity League – First Division

City Calling Stadium – Mar 12th – KO 7.30pm

Shelbourne’s first away game of the season is away to Longford Town at City Calling Stadium on Saturday night. It’s in the second series of games in the SSE Airtricity League and kick-off is timed for 7.30pm.

Longford just missed out on promotion last season, going down 5-4 on aggregate to Bray Wanderers in the final of the promotion play-offs, after being at the top of the first division table for most of the campaign. They have put together a strong squad this season, obviously with a view to going a step further and winning a spot in the Premier Division for next season. They took their first step on this road with a 1-0 win over new club Galway FC at Eamonn Deacy Park on Friday last.

Shelbourne’s aim this season is to return to the Premier at the first attempt, having been relegated at the end of the 2013 season, never being quite able to recover from a disastrous first half of the season. Johnny McDonnell has his young squad playing well and it’s hoped that the 2-0 win against Wexford Youths at Tolka Park last week is a sign of things to come.

In the EA Cup during the week, Longford came away from near neighbours Athlone Town with a 1-0 win, while Shelbourne lost out to Bray Wanderers 2-5 after extra time. As both sides at Tolka fielded teams featuring fringe players in the main, it’s hard to read too much into these results.

One thing that did come out of the Bray game was a Red Card and suspension for this game, for Adam O’Connor, for an alleged hand-ball, even though the ball obviously hit the player in the face, resulting in his mouth being badly cut.

On the injury front Robbie Gaul is still absent with a shoulder injury, while John Sullivan will miss out due to a thigh strain picked up in the Wexford game.

Suspended: Adam O’Connor

Injured: Robbie Gaul, John Sullivan

Doubtful:

Goal Scorers (Competitive 2014)

Darren Tinnelly 2 (EASC 2)

Philip Hand 1

Dylan Connolly 1

Previous Meetings

Aug 13, 2011 Longford 1 – 3 Shelbourne

(Shels Scorers – Cassidy, Hyland(og), C.Byrne)

May 20, 2011 Shelbourne 1 – 0 Longford Town

(Shels Scorer – C.Byrne)

Mar 03, 2011 Longford Town 1 – 2 Shelbourne

(Shels Scorers – C.Byrne, Cassidy)

Sep 11, 2010 Longford Town 1 – 2 Shelbourne

(Shels Scorers – Hughes, Leech )

Jun 08, 2010 Shelbourne 1 – 1 Longford Town

(Shels Scorer – Hughes )

Mar 27, 2010Longford Town 3 – 5 Shelbourne

(Shels Scorers – Foley 2, Cassidy, McGill, Leech)

Oct 30, 2009 Shelbourne 4 – 5 Longford Town

(Shels Scorers – Hynes 2, McAllister, Baker )

Aug 08, 2009 Longford Town 0 – 2 Shelbourne

(Shels Scorers – McAllister 2 )

May 08, 2009 Shelbourne 2 – 2 Longford Town

(Shels Scorers – Madden 2 )

Pre-Season Games 2014

Feb 27, 2014 Shelbourne 3-0 Shamrock Rovers ‘B’

(Shels Scorers – C.Murphy, Sullivan, Tinnelly )

Feb 21, 2014 Shelbourne 1-1 Bohemians

(Shels Scorer – Keegan)

Feb 11, 2014 Shelbourne 0-5 Shamrock Rovers (Prem)

Competitive Fixtures 2014

Mar 10, 2013 Shelbourne 2-5 Bray Wanderers (aet) EASC

(Shels Scorers – Tinnelly 2 )

Mar 07, 2014 Shelbourne 2-0 Wexford Youths

(Shels Scorers – Hand , Connolly )