Longford possess keeper of the faith

FAI Cup final countdown: Emmet Malone talks to one of Longford Town's longest serving players, goalkeeper Stephen O'Brien.

Most of those who will play for Longford Town, against Waterford United, in Sunday's Carlsberg-sponsored FAI Cup final at Lansdowne Road joined the midlands club knowing the ongoing investment on and off the pitch at Flancare Park was supposed to bring this sort of success. A few of the older hands, though, are still having to pinch themselves as they prepare for a third cup final in five seasons.

Throw in the league cup and a club that has spent most of its time on the national stage doing little more than making up the numbers has been averaging a final a season of late. And having won the last two they probably go into this weekend's game as slight favourites to beat Alan Reynolds's Waterford side.

That status would have been unthinkable seven years ago when one of Town's longest serving players arrived from Dublin anxious to do well in what he hoped would be a brief spell in exile that would pave the way to bigger things back in the capital.

"I can never really get over what has happened since," says goalkeeper Stephen O'Brien who, as the Premier division's smallest goalkeeper has in many ways epitomised the spirit, enthusiasm and self-belief that have been at the heart of Longford's unlikely triumphs of the past few years.

"Vinny (Perth) is the only one of the lads who has been here longer than me and we were laughing about it just the other day," recalls the Dubliner who returned to Ireland when he joined Shelbourne after a spell in English non-league football that followed his departure from Gillingham.

"When I agreed to come Stephen (Kenny) had told me all about his ambitions for the place but to be fair managers are always going to tell you that sort of stuff. My main concern was he told me I'd be playing every week and after not really getting too many chances at Shelbourne that certainly appealed to me.

"The first game I played was against Limerick, I think, and there were maybe 50 or 60 people spread out behind the railings that went around the pitch. Apart from that there was nothing other than the dressing-rooms which were out in the car-park. It wasn't great but I reckoned if I did well I'd get a move back to the Premier division. It's still hard to believe the way things have turned out."

At 33 O'Brien's contract is up at the end of next season but he is hoping his current form will earn him a chance to finish his career with the club after which there might be the opportunity to help with its future development in some way.

"Obviously as a goalkeeper I still feel I could go on for a few years and I'd love to stay here," he says. "After that I don't know, there's great people involved with Longford and if there was some way I could help out then that would be great.

"Probably the first thing I'll do when I retire, though, is to take a bit of a break. It's been tough trying to juggle work (O'Brien runs a business that, amongst other things, sells and installs fire alarms, with partner Martin Taylor who gave him a job in Gillingham after he had been let go by the club) with playing and it's been hard at home too. Yvonne has sacrificed a lot for me, changing job and going part-time so as to spend more time with our son Jack while I'm out working or training.

"I certainly don't think going into management would be for me. I look at Alan (Matthews) who has four kids and a good job in the bank and I wonder how he does it. He's probably one of the last generation of part-time managers and I really don't think I could cope the way he does."

It was Matthews who led the club to its first trophy last year but Longford were fortunate with the opposition on the way to the final leaving O'Brien with the niggling feeling the team has something to prove on Sunday.

"I don't believe we were lucky against Pat's (St Patrick's Athletic) in the final," he says. "We were very good on the day. Before that we'd had Tolka Rovers away and then Limerick, Waterford and Galway all at home so maybe some people felt we had it a little bit easy.

"Getting here again has proved we're a force to be reckoned with, that we have players of real quality in every area of the field that can go on and help to become a top-three team in the league over the next few years. I'd like to be around for that, I suppose it's my big remaining ambition in the game . . . after winning on Sunday that is."