WE WOULD DO EXACTLY THE SAME AS KILDARE
LONGFORD manager Denis Connerton would have found it “very, very difficult” to concede home advantage if his side had beaten Kildare last weekend.
Longford’s Championship came to a conclusion at Glennon Brothers Pearse Park on Saturday as the Lilywhites scored a three-point win.
It set up what has turned out to be a controversial round three tie with Mayo which has been fixed for Croke Park rather than St Conleth’s Park in Newbridge.
Longford’s home ground is very much restricted by redevelopment work at present and, had they been drawn against Mayo, they would most likely find themselves in a similar predicament to Kildare.
Connerton said: “I don’t know how we would have reacted and would it have happened to us? We are a Division Three team.
“My opinion is the game would have to be fixed for Longford. If you’ve got to play the All-ireland finalists – one hell of a brilliant team – and the rules say the game has to be in
Glennon Brothers
Pearse Park, then that’s where the game should be.
“For us to bring the likes of Mayo
– if we were in the competition – to
Longford is huge for football in our county and that’s something that I would find very, very difficult to give up.
“I’d imagine that they can make the game all-ticket and there’ll be a marvellous atmosphere in Newbridge.
“Kildare have been on the road for two tough matches, no more than Mayo, who’ve been on the road for two tough matches.
“Mayo were unlucky in the draw not to get a home venue and I’m sure if that game was fixed for Castlebar, would it be brought to Croke Park is the question? Would that game be taken out Castlebar?
“And if it wasn’t going to be taken out of Castlebar well then it should not be taken out of Newbridge either.” Connerton is no stranger to this kind of scenario. Back in 2004, in his first spell in charge of the team, Waterford refused to travel to Longford for a round two qualifier tie.
As both were ‘designated’ weaker counties at the time, there was a coin toss for home venue which Longford won.
But a solution was found with Connerton’s side offering to travel to Portlaoise to play the game on neutral territory, where they scored a nine-point win.
The same year, Tipperary didn’t field a team in a qualifier game against of Fermanagh due to an internal row over club fixtures.
For now at least, Mayo have understandably stayed out of the debacle but whether they’d be of a mind follow Longford’s magnanimous gesture of 14 years ago remains to be seen.
Connerton added: “Well there’s only place I ever wanted to win football matches and that is on the field of play.
“I don’t want to win by a team not turning up or being at a venue that they feel the game should be in. Waterford weren’t going to travel to Longford, they made that quite clear.
“That information was brought to myself and my management team at that time.
“We said, ‘We’ll go up and play them at a neutral venue’, just to keep that fixture alive.
“We didn’t want to lose that fixture and have Waterford dropping out of the competition.”