The Kingdom are on the road for just the second time this season on Saturday evening as we travel to Bishopsgate to take on Longford Town on match night 5 of the SSE Airtricity Men’s First Division campaign.
Kerry come into this one off the back of two narrow 0-1 defeats in Mounthawk Park to Dundalk and Bray Wanderers and will look to get the season back on track away from home on Saturday evening. Having secured an impressive 0-0 draw away to Cobh on matchday 2, Kerry will look to continue some improved away form in 2025, given the newcomers have only managed one away win over the last two seasons in the league.
Longford sit at the bottom of the SSE Airtricity Men’s First Division table with a single point, that coming at home to Midlands rivals Athlone Town. With a game less played than Kerry, the table is yet to settle down and there is no doubt that Longford will be looking to put in an impressive home display following a heavy 5-0 defeat away to Cobh Ramblers last weekend.
Very little has separated the sides over the last 2 seasons. Kerry FC came away from Bishopsgate with a point over two games last season, while a Mounthawk Park double over Longford saw Kerry win both home games against them in 2024.
It’s finely poised heading into this one with Longford looking to kick start the 2025 campaign while Kerry look to move further up the table from their current 6th place in the league standings.
Matchday 5
Longford Town v Kerry FC – Saturday, March 15th – 19:30 Kick Off – Bishopsgate
Previous Meetings – All Competitions
Kerry FC Wins 2 Draws 2 Longford Town Wins 4
Did You Know?
Former Kerry FC captain Andy Spain now lines out with Longford Town. The Kildare native made the switch from the Kingdom to the Midlands during the off season and has featured in Longford’s 3 games to date.
Injury Update
Having welcomed back a number of different players over the last couple of weeks, Kerry have somewhat of a fresher look for this one. Abel Alabi returned as a second half sub last week against Bray Wanderers. Ryan Kelliher’s recovery is continuing and we should see him back in the coming weeks. A couple of knocks for Ronan Teahan, Niall Brookwell, Kevin Williams and Sean O’Connell will be looked at pre-match and are doubtful for the game at this juncture.
What they said?
Conor McCarthy – “League position goes out the window every match week to be totally honest. We aren’t going in there thinking of where they are on the table or what not. The table is obviously still all over the place this early in the season. We played Dundalk and had 80% of the ball and I don’t think people predicted that either. So nobody knows what’s going to happen on a match night. We just need to be at 100% from the first minute, and if you’re not, you get nothing out of the game, so you treat nobody differently.”
