Longford determined to keep cup romance alive

Longford Town v Galway UtdFlancare Park, 7.30 On TV: Network 2

Emmet Malone

It may have taken them a while to uncover the secret of making the competition's latter stages but since making it to their first cup final four seasons ago, Longford are threatening these days to become Irish football's incurable romantics.

The club's defeat at the hands of Bohemians in their first final may have been a little easier to bear while they were still widely considered to be rank outsiders but it is another measure of the progress that has been made at Flancare Park in the three and half years since that Alan Matthews' men will start this evening's televised semi-final as favourites to progress to this season's final at Lansdowne Road.

If they do win, their reward would be either another meeting with Bohemians, and their former manager Stephen Kenny, or a repeat of this year's League Cup final against St Patrick's Athletic, a game, it is generally accepted, they were unfortunate to lose. Neither prospect would look overly intimidating to a side that has adapted well to life in the top flight with the big Dublin outfits.

Tony Mannion knows all about getting the best out of his players when it comes to big cup games, however, and his Galway team will feel they have little to lose as they take on a club with resources that have come to dwarf those available around Terryland Park over the past few seasons.

The first division club are capable of producing some decent football and in Alan Murphy possess the country's leading goalscorer, a man who has found the net five times in just three games on the way to this stage of the competition with Derry City the most notable victims along the way.

Murphy is one of a number of the team's players to come down in recent days with a bout of the flu but the striker should be fine for a game in which Mannion will have to cope without either the suspended Tony Folan or Kieran Foley, who is prohibited from playing under the terms of his loan agreement with Longford.

The visiting side also have problems in goal with Robert Forde still suffering from an ankle injury picked up in an earlier round but, with Eoin Martyn and John Burke struggling too it appears that the club's number one may be encouraged to soldier through. The number of goals the club has conceded in the league has seriously dented its hopes of promotion and threatens to cost it a place in the play-offs, although a 2-0 win away to rivals Kildare at the weekend provided a important boost to the team's confidence.

Longford's Barry Ferguson and former Galway striker Eric Lavine are both suspended while Brian Byrne and another ex-United player, midfielder Darragh Sheridan, are injured. Phillip Keogh is doubtful with the flu while Shane Barrett is still out injured, leaving the way open for either Liam Kelly or Paddy Mulvihill to partner Seán Francis up front.

"You don't want to sound like you're moaning," says Matthews, "but these are fellas who have been playing and they're from right down the spine of the team.

"It's going to be a very big night for the club, though, and none of the lads need to be told what a big opportunity it is. They all want to play in another cup final and hopefully they'll earn it with a win."