Meet Our Opponents: Longford Town FC

(first published in the April 2009 Longford Town programme)

Longford Town Football Club was founded in 1924, though it was to be another 60 years before they were elected to the Football League of Ireland. During that time, however, they had a number of successes at Junior and Intermediate level, principally in Cup competitions it will come as no surprise! In their first season in the league (1984/85) they finished last in the Premier Division and were one of four sides to be relegated to the newly created First Division for the following season, when they finished bottom again with only 7 points. A measure of how much they struggled to adapt to League of Ireland life was that they finished in the bottom six of the ten-team First Division in each of the next eleven seasons, until the trend was bucked in the 1998/99 season when they missed out on a place in the promotion/relegation playoff by just four points.

They kicked on from there and in the following season finished second to win promotion to the top flight. Longford had a decent season in the Premier Division in 2000/01, finishing in mid-table, and also reaching the FAI Cup final for the first time. Unfortunately the team lost 1-0 to Bohemians, but as Bohs also won the League title that year, Longford qualified to play in the UEFA Cup in July 2001. A meeting over 2 games with Bulgarian club side Litex Lovech ended in a 3-1 aggregate victory for the Bulgarians. Things were less comfortable in the League during the 2001/02 season as they ended up in the relegation/promotion playoff, against Finn Harps, but they just about survived in the Premier thanks to a penalty shootout after the tie ended 3-3 on aggregate. After that tough season the club became an established top division team with four successive top six finishes in the four seasons immediately after that.

They have reached three FAI Cup finals this decade, winning two of them. In 2004 they produced a Cup double by winning the League Cup in addition to retaining the FAI Cup, in the infamous ‘two-balls’ final against the Blues. Their back-to-back FAI Cup successes saw them in European action for two seasons in a row; on both occasions, however, they lost in their opening UEFA Cup tie, against FC Vaduz of Liechtenstein and Carmarthen Town of Wales.

The 2007 season was a disappointing one for the Midlands club as they finished last in the division and as a result were relegated, having been deducted six points for failing to comply with club licensing procedures. These six points proved crucial, as without this deduction they would have had the lifeline of the relegation/promotion playoff. Following on from relegation, the club struggled last year, finishing the season in 8th place.

Honours:

League of Ireland Division 1: Runners-Up 1999-2000
League Cup: Winners 2004, Runners-Up 2003
FAI Cup: Winners 2003, 2004, Runners-Up 2001