Longford Town away to Galway United in remaining league fixture

Friday night's games will decide the play-offs with Galway now in third position two points behind Waterford. 

Waterford play fast improving Athlone Town at the RSC on Friday night and a draw should be good enough to cement their position at second spot and they will play Treaty United over two legs to determine who gets through to the First Division play-off final. 

Galway, who were in the top two for most of the season, have gone through a rocky period recently and they will be hoping for improved form in the forthcoming games. 

Last weekend they travelled to Wexford and by all accounts they were lucky to get away with a 0-0 draw.

 The previous weekend Galway were away to form team Athlone Town at Eamon Deacy Park and John Caulfield's side were shocked by second from bottom team.

 Leading scorer Stephen Walsh gave the home side a tonic start with a goal in the second minute. Athlone bounced back in the 18th minute with a goal from Adam Lennon and in the 80th minute in form striker Thomas Oluwa scored the winner.

The three full time teams still occupy the top three spots in the table as expected and Cork were crowned champions last weekend but this is the time that the Town have to get ruthless and show that the part time clubs can also compete with the big spenders. 

The Town have played Galway three times this season and have beaten them twice and have lost once. The Town's two wins were at home and they lost the first away game that was played in Eamon Deacy Park back in early May. 

On that occasion Galway won 2-0 with goals from David Hurley who scored from the penalty spot in the 50th minute. The second goal came from Max Hemmings in the 72nd minute. The Town  lost Dean McMenamy to a red card on 82 mins. 

The home wins for Longford against Galway were in March and June. The first home game was played near the end of March when goals from Sam Verdon (45 mins) and Darren Craven (77 mins) gave the Town a 2-1 victory. 

The Galway goal came in the eleventh minute and it was an unfortunate og from Michael McDonnell.

Back in late June the Town beat Galway 2-0 and this was a special night for Cristian Magerusan who scored twice in the 61st and 82nd minutes. 

The Town have a long list of injuries going into Friday's game against Galway and Gary Cronin will be hoping to have some of those players back for Friday, if not he will be hoping that some of the injured will return for the play-off matches.

More will be known of the availability of the injured players this week and let's hope that Gary Cronin has a full squad to pick from heading to Eamonn Deacy Park.

 As stated earlier this Galway squad are  full time and that must be an advantage for them but there is added pressure in the play-offs that will put huge pressure on Galway's John Caulfield. 

When you look at the Galway squad you can see that it's full of experienced players, most of them have Premier Division experience. 

Stephen Walsh is a defender but he has scored regularly from his defensive role. 

Conor McCormack is undoubtedly an excellent midfielder who has played almost all his football in the Premier Division while Bastien Hery also has great experience with all the top clubs here and also cross channel. 

Former Town striker Rob Manley is in their squad and we all know how dangerous he is in front of goal. Killian Brouder, Ronan Manning, Wilson Waweru, Francley Lomboto and Max Hemmings are all very good players who are capable of turning games in favour of their team.

There is no doubt that the Town face a very tough game on Friday against Galway but they are capable of beating any club in the First Division and that will stand to the team in the coming weeks.

Section O Bus to Galway

Section O are running a bus to Eamonn Deacy Park on Friday for the final league game of the season. Supporters interested in travelling can contact Kyle on 083 0210715.