Longford is not a happy hunting ground for us

EACH time I leave Longford’s City Calling Stadium, I am unimpressed, to say the least. Our two excursions there last year ended in 1- 1 draws. The first, we took the lead thanks to an exquisite David Cawley strike, before Kevin O’Connor scored an even more impressive goal to make it 1- 1.

Our last visit there in October was a different story. At the time, we were looking in danger of relegation. I think we all knew we weren’t going to be relegated deep down, but there was still that possibility.

Beating Longford that day would have made us feel safe. The game looked to heading towards a 0- 0, but then Longford struck in the 82nd minute to take the lead.

I remember thinking that moment, that this was it. We weren’t going to be able to survive. How would we avoid relegation danger if we couldn’t win one of the easier games we would have?

There was that Tim Clancy red card that was somewhat controversial too, which added to the misery of the evening.

But then, Anthony Elding somehow hit the back of the net in the dying minutes to earn Rovers a point. Did he actually touch the ball? Did he just distract the Longford keeper Paul Skinner enough to allow the ball roll into the net?

It didn’t matter. Whatever he did, he was going to take the credit for it, and whatever he did do - it worked.

But that was a strange feeling. We so badly needed to win it, that a draw didn’t feel like much of an achievement at the time. When really, it was. It was enough. Still though, I felt sick to my stomach leaving that night.

There was a similar feeling of disappointment leaving on Saturday night, although not quite near as bad as last year.

Longford are struggling at the bottom of the table. They don’t look like they have much hope of staying up this year.

That’s a game we should be winning easily. There’s no doubt about it. But sometimes teams fighting relegation can be the hardest ones to play. They have something to motivate them.

And I suppose it’s been difficult for Rovers in the last few weeks. This was only their third game since the mid- season break at the beginning of June.

The last two months have been so disrupted it almost feels like we’re back in pre- season again.

And I would imagine it’s hard for players to keep motivating themselves throughout these lengthy breaks when other teams around us still have games continuing as normal.

Two defensive errors lead to both of Longford’s goals but I still find it hard to be critical of players. Particularly Gary Boylan, who has been immense for Rovers since breaking into the first team.

It was an uncharacteristic error from him and these things happen. We can’t sit here and hang him out to dry. It wouldn’t be fair.

Defensively Rovers weren’t at the races and Longford were able to take advantage of that. It doesn’t happen too often and everyone is entitled to an off day.

The reality is that while people will be critical of defensive errors, I don’t think we created enough to really threaten Ryan Coulter in goal, and he wasn’t actually kept too busy on the night.

That’s another thing that needs looking at. We may not be punished for that against Longford but certainly will be when we meet teams like Derry, Wexford and Cork as we will be in the coming weeks.

We’re almost slightly in limbo at the minute. Relegation isn’t a concern, we’re not going to challenge for the title and Europe may come if results go really really well. But securing a mid- table finish is the priority this year and I can’t see any way of that not happening at this stage - famous last words.

I guess one of the more disappointing aspects has been that we haven’t seen much of the younger players who have been in the squad.

Fresh legs could have changed the game on Saturday night, and you can only gain when you give the younger lads a chance in a game like that.

We need all the bodies possible in the next few weeks, so hopefully the whole squad is given a chance at some stage.