DO NOT DENY US
Home tie’s a Long time coming for Connerton
LONGFORD could be back in Navan next May for a Championship showdown with Meath – something that would deeply frustrate boss Denis Connerton.
The Midlanders head to Pairc Tailteann today in the O’byrne Cup semi-finals – a dress rehearsal for their Leinster championship quarter-final tie. As things stand, that game will be played at Longford’s Pearse Park base but if redevelopment work isn’t completed on time, the game will be shifted to Navan. Connerton said: “We’re very hopeful we’ll get to play Meath at home, absolutely. And I have to say we probably deserve it at this stage. “It’s my sixth year overall managing Long ford and we’re yet to have a home g ame in the Leinster Championship. On the law of averages you’d have to think we deserve to play one in Longford, we’ve been on the road the whole time.” Meath are the slight favourites to advance to next weekend’s final against Westmeath or Offaly, though Longford are the form team of the tournament.
They hammered Louth and then pulled off a surprise win over 2017 Leinster finalists Kildare to reach the knock-out stages.
That’s despite being down several key players this year, including long serving defender Dermot Brady who has finally retired.
Diarmuid Masterson, John Keegan, Larry Moran and Barry O’farrell, all of whom played in last year’s Championship, are also unavailable for 2018.
And Connerton’s son, Liam, a goalscorer in their Championship win over Louth last summer, is out with cruciate knee ligament trouble.
Meath have been forced to draft in new players too and boss Andy Mcentee is treating January as an opportunity to experiment.
Mickey Newman, Donnacha Tobin, Paddy O’rourke, Ruairi O Coileain, Padraic Harnan and Ronan Jones have all left the panel.
That’s opened the door for the likes of Luke Moran, Mark Mccabe, Liam Ferguson and Paddy Kennelly.
Mcentee believes there’s an appetite for success in the county after several seasons treading water.
He said: “Meath people want to see this team do well. We’ve got a lot of really good support behind us, a lot of enthusiasm.
“This game is at home and you want to put up a show in front of your supporters all of the time so hopefully that’s what we do.”