Town 2025

[MoydowMonty]

I'm not getting carried away or anything. I still think it'll be a battle to not finish last. Last night just gave me a bit of hope that it'll at least be enjoyable. I just hope we keep putting that much effort and fight into every game and these young lads continue to grow. Maybe then we'll punch above our weight a bit and get some surprise results

[outspoken]

First two games I've been delighted with the fight and effort. Far more quality on show last night though. Norris and George were really at it, they'll have to be most weeks as we are lacking goal scorers. I actually like the look of young Murtagh he's making some good runs and holds it up well but you would be worried about our lack of a proven striker. I think we'll improve as season goes on but wouldn't expect us to challenge for anything

[De Town]

As mentioned already, the effort and work rate from the players can't be faulted in either of our first 2 games and for me, once you see that much then you feel like you're getting your 15 quids worth.

I know he made some decent saves the other night, but Halwax just doesn't fill me with confidence at all and feel like there's a rick in him at any given moment. We will struggle for goals I'd imagine, Norris being our main threat won't exactly catch teams out as the season goes on. Topcu a great grafter in midfield, I liked the look of him at the backend of last season and he has impressed again early this season.

I'd be surprised if we're near contending for playoffs to be honest, but at the same time, it wouldn't shock me if it's a league where any team could beat any team on any given day/night.

If the effort levels from the first 2 games remain for the next 34 games, that'll do for me.

[Acornvilla]

If we're clear of the bottom 2 by the end of the season I'll probably be happy enough as long as it feels like this is a group that can grow together and build upon over a few years and push on towards the playoffs in a season or so.

[MoydowMonty]

He had one of his better games but I just feel there's always a clanger in him. I don't feel as safe as when we had Brady or Dennison or Steacy.

It'll be interesting to see what we're like against a decent side (whether it's Cobh this Friday or Dundalk later this month) as we've faced 2 not great sides so far.

[MoydowMonty]

Have we a new away kit for this season or? Don't recall it being revealed alongside the home kit. Suppose we'll find out friday either way

[outspoken]

There is a new away kit, basically the same design as the home but blue and yellow, i think it will look lovely, I haven't seen it but in my brain it should be nice

[MoydowMonty]

Fair enough. Personally I'm sick of the yellow and wish they'd change it up, could do so many nice things with it by not being bound to the yellow (like 2015 kit). But good to know there's a new away kit at all

[LTFC]

I would be happy if we were in the hunt for the playoffs, but if we were its more likely a reflection of others struggles too.

First team will always be the flag bearers, but it would appear to have suffered as we need to spend more and more on our other teams. Thats only going 1 way, more club teams, so as we are currently set up bottom half of first is where we are.

[MoydowMonty]

Right. Well the less said about that the better.

Really need to respond now next week

[outspoken]

Cobh aren't a team we are competing with this season. Kerry game far more important.

[LTFC]

Important one for us this weekend. 3 games in , obviously hammered last week, and just 1 goal scored from a peno in the 3 games.

[outspoken]

Home performances ok so far, you'd be seriously worried if we aren't competitive on Saturday.

[MoydowMonty]

It's a must to show up for this tomorrow. And with kids getting in free with reduced adult tickets there's potentially a bigger crowd than 2 weeks ago to win over.

I'm gonna pop into Elverys tomorrow as well. Assuming there's still nothing for sale that'll be a full month since season started without anything to buy

[MoydowMonty]

I could cry. What a win and what a game that was. If there's a better match this season I'll be surprised

[LTFC]

When it goes your way its the best feeling....and if he scores the peno its a complete downer!
Chuffed for the players to get a win, season will be tough but its those games that make it! Come on de Town!

[MoydowMonty]

I would have cried for a different reason had it gone in. Actually deserved that win too I don't think Kerry did near enough 2nd half.
Delighted for Aaron Walshe, that must be his first appearance in 18 months at least.
I thought it was a stonewall penalty too but I heard people say he got the ball? Not sure myself
I actually feel a bit sorry for those Kerry fans, absolutely gutting the way that ended and they're not even halfway home now as I type this.

I said it was important we showed up for this. Attendance was 800 apparently. Hopefully some of them come back cuz everyone got their money's worth

[listowelceltic]

Definitely a peno. Right in front of us.
First time in your ground. Very impressive. Better than alot of Premier grounds. Although on a wet night the fans outside the stand might get a good soaking.

[outspoken]

Crazy crazy game. Kerry excellent after they equalized, had us on ropes until HT. Agree that they didn't hit those heights second half. Keeper still a massive concern, big let off at the end but as someone else said above it's going to be a tough season but if the home games are as exciting as the Last two you'd take that

[MoydowMonty]

Keeper is the biggest concern of the whole squad. I was gonna say I'd have dropped him for McCarthy months ago, but I wouldn't have even re-signed him for this season to put us in this position.

Pity it's Dundalk away next. A team like Harps or the Wexford rearranged game would have suited much better after that game. But maybe I'm not giving enough credit, maybe we'll give Dundalk a game.

[outspoken]

Saw Dundalk against Treaty and wasn't overly impressed but it seemed to click against Bray which is the fear as we saw what happened when it clicked for Cobh after a slow start

[LTFC]

Cant see us getting anything out of Dundalk, like Cork last season, a cut above the rest. The 3 games after that Treaty h, Harps a and UCD h would be ones youd hope to get some results.

[outspoken]

Would sadly agree, conceding over 2 per game, we aren't scoring 3 in Oriel. GK is a huge concern although Cherrie might give us a chance if we're lucky.

[MoydowMonty]

I'm sorry but this keeper is by far and away the worst performing player in that squad so far this season. If you're young McCarthy you have to be wondering what has to happen to get a look in. If it's because he was in goal for that 6-0 in the cup last year, that was not his fault.

[MoydowMonty]

Decent effort all things considered. I'd fancy a go at Treaty next week

[outspoken]

Brilliant effort from the lads tonight, agree again about the keeper tho

[LTFC]

Considering we are likely to be at the bottom ennd of the table the results in other games didnt do us any favours! Could do with getting a result against Treaty, the following week its Finn Harps away, followed by Wexford and UCD.

[MoydowMonty]

I'm after noticing Kerry have had their merch available to buy online for a couple of weeks now. So are we now the only club who don't have anything available to purchase?

I don't know what's going on there, but nearly April and not having the new stuff available is a bad look with the league now as popular as it is. Fairly sure the announcement said the jersey would be available to purchase soon as well.

[MoydowMonty]

Treaty game will probably be tougher that I realised. In my head they hadn't won a game for a few weeks but they had a comeback draw against Dundalk and probably just fell at the final hurdle against Wexford.

But hopefully we've another good crowd after that cracker against Kerry and the lads should be well up for it after that and nearly holding Dundalk

[outspoken]

Treaty should be higher up the table, threw away games against Cobh and Wexford and as you said they are the only team to take points off Dundalk. Having watched them in Oriel that night they are a typical Tommy Barrett side, extremely well organized and they will be very physical, hopefully Aaron Walsh being back fit can help us with that as I'd worry about us getting pushed around a bit here, particularly on set pieces. Their keeper had a mare against Dundalk that night so we need to be putting him under pressure as much as they'll be trying to do the same to Halwax. I can see if Being a fairly scrappy game, whoever keeps their discipline best and wins the most individual battles is likely to shade it. No enda Curran thank God. We could really do with Dean Georgie bursting into life against his former club here.

[LTFC]

Delighted with win tonight. Great to get the 3 points after last nights results. Tight table, 3 points between 3rd and 12th!

[MoydowMonty]

Thrilled with that. Withheld the pressure and fought hard for that win

Took like 15 games to get to 2 wins last year, this year it has taken us 6. Just gives a bit of hope for the year

[outspoken]

A win next week and we are flying. No away win since July and that remains Wayne's only one so we could do with righting that.

[LTFC]

A win tomorrow and we could be 4th....a loss tomorrow and we could be last.

[MoydowMonty]

I mightn't get to watch it tonight but I'll be checking in on the game minute by minute. A win tonight would make it 3 wins from last 4, and I can't remember the last time we did that. Personally think it'll be a draw but a very winnable game too

[Martinho II]

I mightn't get to watch it tonight but I'll be checking in on the game minute by minute. A win tonight would make it 3 wins from last 4, and I can't remember the last time we did that. Personally think it'll be a draw but a very winnable game too

Think it will be a tough game with the great Kevin McHugh being Harps new boss. Our record in Ballybofey isnt great. Will gladly take the draw!

[MoydowMonty]

Think it will be a tough game with the great Kevin McHugh being Harps new boss. Our record in Ballybofey isnt great. Will gladly take the draw!

Tough is right. I'd have taken the draw before the game but after being uo against 10 men it's a tiny bit disappointing. Seemed to let Harps bully us near the end.

I'm not too annoyed though. This is still a lot better than this stage last season. Onwards and upwards to another tough one against Wexford on Tuesday now

[Martinho II]

Tough is right. I'd have taken the draw before the game but after being uo against 10 men it's a tiny bit disappointing. Seemed to let Harps bully us near the end.

I'm not too annoyed though. This is still a lot better than this stage last season. Onwards and upwards to another tough one against Wexford on Tuesday now

Think with the fiasco over the pts wouldnt mind us gettin a pt from Ferrycarrig!

[MoydowMonty]

Think with the fiasco over the pts wouldnt mind us gettin a pt from Ferrycarrig!

They had a very good win last night themselves I'd certainly take a point from that game too. 8 points from our last 12 isn't bad at all in fairness

[outspoken]

You'd probably take 1 loss and 1 win, better than two draws. UCD on Saturday is a big opportunity given their start but looking at their squad they've too much quality not too click, strangely enough they should enjoy playing in longford given the state of their pitch.

[LTFC]

Big one again tonight, a team similar to us I feel. Home form has been good , a win tonight and we are fringes of playoffs, although cant see us being in the mix for that.

[MoydowMonty]

Just not at the races tonight, didn't trouble them enough.
Bray on friday. I still don't think their position is reflective of how they actually are, I'm just waiting for their bubble to burst. Hopefully it's us who burst it

[outspoken]

Very very flat performance on Saturday, maybe 3 games in 9 days catching up especially given we made so few changes from game to game (squad depth a major issue).

Bray are flying, maybe I judged them too quickly on the opening night when I thought they looked bang average, this will be a better indication of where both sides are.

Our biggest problem is in the final third, without Morris we have absolutely no goal threat up there.

Young Murtagh running his socks off but feeding off even less than crumbs.

[MoydowMonty]

Couldn't make it to the game nor stream it. But sounds like I didn't miss much. We did not burst their bubble as I had hoped. 3 games in a row now where we've been decisively beaten in different ways. Concerning after it felt like things were looking up with the treaty win.

Athlone on Monday, they have to be looking at our form and thinking there's 3 points for grabs there

[MoydowMonty]

Just copped from FAI Connect, cuz I was curious who was in the dugout for Athlone last night after Costello left. It was Robbie Rock, who was managing our u20s last season. I didn't even realised he had left us

[Keen2win]

Seems like a poor start to the season.. A loss against Athlone will probably confirm another shocking season for LTFC

Not that I have even seen a minute of LTFC this year bar highlights, if I am going to look at a Dublin team I might as well look at one of the decent ones! Hopefully I'll get a look at some stage anyway, but don't expect much tbh..

I was looking at our current U20 team. This team should be flying as its the 17s from 3 years ago where we won our first underage national league title playing top class football - best underage team the club has had IMO. Now there is a total of 1 player on the 20s from that team lol.. what an absolute waste of time but very interesting to see what is happening - this is supposed to be our reserve team.

Any proper manager says that the first team is all built on the academy, Duffer has said it recently. LTFC must be one of the only clubs in world football that the academy and first team do not train in the same location. How is a young talent from the midlands, say 16/17, expected to travel up and down to Dublin for training with first team, its a farce. These local players are being let down and just leave. Proper clubs have youth players training with the first team and bleeding them in, also making them better players and improving the academy. LTFC seems to be more a social club than a football club atm. IMO the league table speaks for itself, and it's a poor reflection on the chairman, the academy, the committee, the club media, etc. Was LTFC set up over 100 years ago to benefit people from Dublin? I doubt it... I accept that this is basically what happened during our glory years, however this was a completely different time for LOI.

No strikers, pity we didn't keep Elding and in so doing young Owen Elding, current top scorer in premier with the Sligo. Most promising talent in LOI, because he has been trained by the best coach in the country. Will probably be sold for a few million the way things are going. That cash would have come in handy no doubt for the club, so the club have literally made a decision there that is likely to cost them millions lol and all we hear is how the club has no money sob story. So yes not keeping Elding the worst decision made by a mile. Shur there are multiple Longford players playing for Sligo underage, they and their parents know where to go. There is top talent in the midlands that will not play for LTFC academy because of the quality/results and zero interaction with First Team, and personally I wouldn't blame them one bit. We have lost Guilly too, another top talent that could potentially be sold for good money too. Many other local players gone from our 17s that would be walking into the first team squad if there was proper structures in place, however they have just left - many left when Anthony Elding left and followed him to Sligo which speaks for itself.

Maybe I'll get a bit of abuse again but I just can't stop remembering that I have a LOI medal as a coach in my back pocket so I'll say my piece and if people don't agree they should check their own back pocket for a medal before hounding me lol .

Time to get successful football people into LTFC, and recognise that the current set up is laughable. I can basically guarantee Anthony Elding would be successful, but I feel some turkeys will never vote for Christmas no matter how awful the club is performing once they maintain their involvement. For now we will have to put up with some nobody coaches that will get us nowhere. Any LTFC manager that keeps this training in Dublin is not a manager at all, because once they are training in Dublin the academy is one big waste of time and money. It made me sick to hear the current manager Groves say last year that young players need to be ready before getting into first team, how would they be ready when ye train in Dublin and all the young players are from the midlands. Longford is the most disadvantaged place in the country, why are we not supporting our own and instead supporting all these Dubliners from the most advantaged place in the country - doesn't make sense to me!

[outspoken]

Very strange game we actually played very well in the first half, created loads of changes but we are really missing a proven goal scorer.

We started the game like the UCD game very flat and passive and conceded a stupid goal as a result but that woke us up and we dominated until Andy Spain had a Gerrard like slip and they made it 2-0.

Again, we dominated up to half time but couldn't put ball In net. Boudiaf, who was out best player by far, missed a sitter from a few yards out. We needed a goal going into the break but couldn't get it over the line.

Second half is inexcusable, flat, second to every ball and wide open at the back, there can be no excuses made for it.

HUGE response needed on Monday. Also, very disappointing to see how town fans were treated in bray even older supporters at the game said they had never been treated so poorly at an away ground.

[Martinho II]

Seems like a poor start to the season.. A loss against Athlone will probably confirm another shocking season for LTFC

Not that I have even seen a minute of LTFC this year bar highlights, if I am going to look at a Dublin team I might as well look at one of the decent ones! Hopefully I'll get a look at some stage anyway, but don't expect much tbh..

I was looking at our current U20 team. This team should be flying as its the 17s from 3 years ago where we won our first underage national league title playing top class football - best underage team the club has had IMO. Now there is a total of 1 player on the 20s from that team lol.. what an absolute waste of time but very interesting to see what is happening - this is supposed to be our reserve team.

Any proper manager says that the first team is all built on the academy, Duffer has said it recently. LTFC must be one of the only clubs in world football that the academy and first team do not train in the same location. How is a young talent from the midlands, say 16/17, expected to travel up and down to Dublin for training with first team, its a farce. These local players are being let down and just leave. Proper clubs have youth players training with the first team and bleeding them in, also making them better players and improving the academy. LTFC seems to be more a social club than a football club atm. IMO the league table speaks for itself, and it's a poor reflection on the chairman, the academy, the committee, the club media, etc. Was LTFC set up over 100 years ago to benefit people from Dublin? I doubt it... I accept that this is basically what happened during our glory years, however this was a completely different time for LOI.

No strikers, pity we didn't keep Elding and in so doing young Owen Elding, current top scorer in premier with the Sligo. Most promising talent in LOI, because he has been trained by the best coach in the country. Will probably be sold for a few million the way things are going. That cash would have come in handy no doubt for the club, so the club have literally made a decision there that is likely to cost them millions lol and all we hear is how the club has no money sob story. So yes not keeping Elding the worst decision made by a mile. Shur there are multiple Longford players playing for Sligo underage, they and their parents know where to go. There is top talent in the midlands that will not play for LTFC academy because of the quality/results and zero interaction with First Team, and personally I wouldn't blame them one bit. We have lost Guilly too, another top talent that could potentially be sold for good money too. Many other local players gone from our 17s that would be walking into the first team squad if there was proper structures in place, however they have just left - many left when Anthony Elding left and followed him to Sligo which speaks for itself.

Maybe I'll get a bit of abuse again but I just can't stop remembering that I have a LOI medal as a coach in my back pocket so I'll say my piece and if people don't agree they should check their own back pocket for a medal before hounding me lol .

Time to get successful football people into LTFC, and recognise that the current set up is laughable. I can basically guarantee Anthony Elding would be successful, but I feel some turkeys will never vote for Christmas no matter how awful the club is performing once they maintain their involvement. For now we will have to put up with some nobody coaches that will get us nowhere. Any LTFC manager that keeps this training in Dublin is not a manager at all, because once they are training in Dublin the academy is one big waste of time and money. It made me sick to hear the current manager Groves say last year that young players need to be ready before getting into first team, how would they be ready when ye train in Dublin and all the young players are from the midlands. Longford is the most disadvantaged place in the country, why are we not supporting our own and instead supporting all these Dubliners from the most advantaged place in the country - doesn't make sense to me!

excellent post Keen2win. I too have being the victim of abuse and havent attended games this season due to personal reasons. The club has sadly lost its way. Im not going to say anything any more as I was reported on a previous post here for telling the truth. I will only go to matches when it suits me.

[MoydowMonty]

An undeserved point in my opinion. Couldn't string 2 passes together most of the 2nd half. But the lads rallied together the last 10 and stole a point. I'd love to see Manny James upfront with murtagh cuz I'm slowly coming round to him, but think he needs help up top. He's often left doing it all for nothing by himself.

Slater could be a big boost as well coming back. Glad to have stopped the rot of 3 losses in a row. But that away form really needs to pick up. In a few months if it stays as is we'll be saying we've only 1 away win across 24 months which is grim.

Dundalk on Saturday. They're not world beaters. Well able to give them a shock of some sort

[De Town]

As bad as we were for the first 30 mins of the second half, and by god we were bad, I actually think we deserved a point out of it. We should have been ahead at HT, Campbell missing a sitter amongst other decent chances/opportunities that we didn't make the most of. Athlone were desperate too, but I still think on the overall balance of play we didn't deserve to lose. Delighted to get the equaliser in the end, a lovely goal it was too.

But christ, that first half an hour of the second half was as bad as I've seen in a long, long time.

Would agree that LWS on the right brings a bit of extra quality. Be great if he could stay fit now and if we could get Norris back on the left too. Be much more threat with those two fit and firing. Anyone know when he's due back from injury?