Preview: Finn Harps face Longford who although bottom cannot be underestimated

Longford Town. who host Finn Harps at Bishopsgate on Saturday evening, haven’t won a game since the opening day of the Premier Division campaign, back in March when they shocked Derry City.

And with 13 league games left this season, the situation is rather bleak for Daire Doyle and his struggling side.
So, this is a real opportunity for the Donegal club - who occupy the relegation play-off berth - to put more distance between themselves and the midlanders. A win for Harps would push them 16 points above the automatic relegation spot, leaving Longford surely doomed.

However, as Harps supremo Ollie Horgan has alluded to on many occasions, Harps seem to have a habit of extracting results when you don’t expect it and then, when expectations are high, somehow they can often trip.
The great 1-0 away win over Sligo Rovers last weekend falls into the former category and he will be hoping that the Longford game does not materialise in the latter.

Indeed, Horgan won’t need to remind his players that Longford will still be a hard nut to crack, despite their basement position.

Longford took a point off Harps when they met in Ballybofey in June and when the sides met for the first time this season it was scoreless at Bishopsgate.

So it will be a case of third time lucky as Harps bid to secure a first win of the campaign over the side that are red-hot favourites for a quick return to Division One.

In seven of the 14 games that Longford have lost, it has been by a single goal.

And they can certainly claim - with some justification - that they just have not got the breaks this season.

Indeed, this is borne out starkly in their games with champions Shamrock Rovers.
For the third time this season Longford Town suffered the shattering blow of conceding a late winner against the Hoops last weekend.

The Town were on the brink of what would have been a tremendous draw at Tallaght Stadium on Sunday last, only for Rovers defender Liam Scales to head home a last gasp winning goal in the fifth minute of injury-time.
In May Rory Gaffney got a 95th minute winner as Rovers beat Longford 1-0 at Bishopsgate while in April Sean Gannon got a 93rd minute decider as Rovers won 2-1 in Tallaght.

Speaking ahead of the game, Ollie Horgan told FinnHarps.ie: “There has been very little between the two sides in both games this season and Saturday night will be no different. Any side that can push Shamrock Rovers up until the last kick of the game, on three separate occasions no less, has a lot of quality about them and Longford will be well up for the fight.

"We rode our luck at times in Sligo but we’ve played a lot better in games and lost, so it was a big lift to come away with the three points. We need to build on that now and start putting some results together if we want to have a chance of moving up the table.”

Horgan’s side will be without Mark Coyle who is suspended, but Shane McEleney is availabel again and there will be renewed confidence in the camp after the Sligo success.

Dean Williams and Darragh Nugent, who are on loan to Longford from Shamrock Rovers, were not permitted to play against their parent club at Tallaght Stadium on Sunday last but both could start against Harps.

There is little doubt that there will be twists and turns ahead in the scrap to avoid the relegation play-off spot and while in-form Waterford and Europe-focussed Dundalk are the two sides immediately above Harps, one suspects that Horgan may well feel that in the final reckoning it could be a scrap between the Donegal outfit and Drogheda to see who finishes eighth and ninth.

Drogheda have won just once in eight games - against Harps - and have certainly hit a bumpty patch.
Kick-off at Bishopsgate is 7.30 pm. Elsewhere, St. Pat's host Waterford on Friday, while on Saturday Drogheda are at home to Shamrock Rovers, Bohs entertain Sligo and Derry face Dundalk.

Kick-off is 8.00 pm.