Callaghan lauds young shot-stopper
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Longford Town boss Aaron Callaghan has been quick to heap praise on goalkeeper Neil Gallagher following a string of impressive displays for the First Division side.
The 23-year-old joined The Midlanders this season from Dundalk and was forced to bide his time to make his debut as Seamus Kelly was preferred as the first option between the posts.
However, an injury to Kelly gave the former Republic of Ireland U-19 international the chance that he was waiting for and he took full advantage by turning in a host of outstanding performances.
Now Gallagher has given his manager a selection headache for when Kelly returns to full fitness, as he now has two excellent keepers to choose from but it is an option that Callaghan is glad to have.
“I was alerted to Neil’s (Gallagher) attention last year and I became very interested in adding him to our squad,” Callaghan told eircomloi.ie.
“I think he only made about three or four appearances for Dundalk and Vinny Perth, who was with the club last season, highly recommended him after working with him closely.
“To be fair to him, he has come in due to an injury to Shay (Kelly), who would be our first-choice keeper, and really excelled. He was fantastic in the cup match (against St Patrick’s Athletic) and has held his own since getting into the team.
“He needed to work on his fitness and a few technique issues. Paul Fagan, our goalkeeping coach, has done terrific work with him over the last couple of months and he has grown in confidence with every game.”
With the halfway point of the season rapidly approaching, Callaghan is happy with how his young team have fared so far but still thinks that they can play a lot better.
After being relegated from the Premier Division last year, there were a lot of concerns voiced over the future of the club. Although, they now appear to be a team going from strength to strength as they sit fifth in the table after fifteen games.
“I would like a lot more points on the board, obviously. But I think when you take into consideration where the club has come in relation to last year then we have done okay so far this year,” admitted Callaghan.
“There are some strong clubs in this league, like Dundalk and Shelbourne, who have been building their teams for two or three years, so it was always going to be difficult against those type of teams.
“We have competed well so far and even if we haven’t won all of the games, we have given the other teams a good battle. The problem for us though is that we have yet to find that level of consistency.
“So there has been a lot done, but plenty more to do. Hopefully we can make improvements in the second half of the season and pick up more wins.”
Longford will make the trip up to Kingspan Century Park to face Monaghan United on Friday evening.
