Longford pulled off the result of the night on Friday as they beat League leaders UCD 5-1 at Belfield. Dylan McGlade scored a brace of goals, while Shane Elworthy’s long-range effort in the second-half was the pick of the bunch. Manager Neale Fenn te
Longford pulled off the result of the night on Friday as they beat League leaders UCD 5-1 at Belfield. Dylan McGlade scored a brace of goals, while Shane Elworthy’s long-range effort in the second-half was the pick of the bunch.
Manager Neale Fenn tells our reporter Peter Branigan that it was a hugely satisfying performance from his team.
‘It was positive, it was hard-working, with some great goals thrown in as well. So it was brilliant, from our point of view.
‘We were very clinical, we took our chances. And we have struggled with taking our chances this season, to be honest. We restricted them in the second-half, so it was really, really pleasing.’
In tremendous heat at Belfield, the teams were allowed water breaks in both halves. But the conditions didn’t stop Longford from bringing huge intensity to the game, particularly in the first-half.
‘We knew that they’ve got good players, and they’ll play around you if you let them. So we had to get after them, and we had to press them, and we did.
‘We’ve got good lads in midfield, with loads of energy. And we knew if we could use that, and pressure UCD, we could create chances.’
Longford took a more defensive line after the break, sitting back, as they attempted to hold on to their lead. But with UCD committing men forward, they were able to catch College on the break and score three goals in the last fifteen minutes.
‘There’s no point chasing it, you’re 2-1 up. We sat in, hit them on the break, and took our chances well.
‘What we worked on all week was executed perfectly.’
The result keeps De Town into fourth place in the table, while closing the gap to leaders UCD to six points with nine games to go. Fenn says his team know what they have to do.
‘We’ve been saying all along that no team in the League is better than us. The best team usually goes up, usually, so there’s no reason why we can’t go and win the League.
‘That gap was big before the game tonight, but we knew we still had to play UCD twice, and there was a chance to claw six of those points back.
‘Tonight was a good performance, and we’re back in the mix.’
Next up for Longford is the visit of Cobh to City Calling Stadium, and Fenn will be determined that it won’t be, what he calls, ‘one of those silly games where we haven’t scored or we haven’t played well.’
The midlanders are the form team in the League, and who knows where the results might take them by September. More performances like the one on Friday night, and teams will do well to take points off them.
