Longford county football team

The Longford county colours are royal blue and gold. Green and white hooped jerseys were reputedly used by Longford until 1918 when a royal blue jersey with a gold sash was adopted. Around 1930 the sash disappeared but the gold trim was retained.

Jackie Devine set up two goals for Longford in the last six minutes of the 1968 Leinster Senior Football Championship (SFC) final to beat Laois by 3-9 to 1-4, where Sean Donnelly and Jim Hannify were the scorers. It was their only Leinster SFC title, and it came two years after a great victory over Galway on a scoreline of nine points to eight in the National League final. Longford also won the O'Byrne Cup in 1965, 2000 & 2020.

When Longford lost a replayed Leinster SFC semi-final in 1970 it was the county's fourth semi-final in six years and 8th time reaching the semi-final stage. After 1970, Longford reached the Leinster SFC semi-final twice, in 1988 and 2018 (losing to Dublin on both occasions).[1]

Brendan Hackett managed the team between 1987 and 1990 in his first managerial role at inter-county level.[2] Longford made the 1988 Leinster SFC semi-finals and also two quarter-finals of the National Football League.[2]

Victories over Westmeath and Wicklow in 1988 left the county on the verge of a Leinster SFC final after 20 years. The team played well against Dublin and led by three points at half-time. Team manager and sports psychologist Hackett cited what happened next as an example of lack of self-belief in extremis: Dublin drew level with twenty minutes remaining and won by 18 points.

Since first defeating Meath in the 1928 Leinster Championship, Longford has a decent record against that opponent in that competition and had a surprise victory in 1982. Longford forced Offaly to a replay in 1984, but the promise of the under-21 teams that reached successive Leinster finals in 1981 and 1982 failed to materialise. In 2002, the county's minor team won the Leinster Minor Football Championship, the following year the county vocational schools team won the All-Ireland Vocational Schools Championship at A and B level, the only county to do so.

2001 saw Longford surrender the O'Byrne Cup in the opening round. The league saw Longford win four from the first five games, but defeats to Monaghan and Kildare in the final round meant there was no promotion. The championship began with victory over Louth in Navan to set up an SFC quarter-final against Dublin. Longford ultimately won well in that game, at Croke Park. 2001 also saw the introduction of the back door, or qualifiers. Longford's first second chance outing was away to Wicklow, though Longford lost by a scoreline of 1-14 to 0-11.

Denis Connerton managed the team between 2004 and 2007.[3]

Glenn Ryan managed the team from 2009.

In 2010, 2011 and 2012, Damien Sheridan won the All-Ireland Kick Fada Championship.

The footballers had mixed fortunes in 2014. The Leinster SFC campaign finally yielded a win over Offaly for new manager Jack Sheedy on a scoreline of 0-19 to 0-15,[4] but a 1-13 to 1-15 defeat to Wexford followed in the quarter-final, in the sunshine of Pearse Park.[5] The All-Ireland SFC qualifier draw paired Longford with Derry, a high-scoring game which Longford won by two points.[6][7] However, in the next round, Tipperary inflicted a 17-point defeat on Longford to end the county's 2014 championship campaign.[8]

Denis Connerton replaced Sheedy as manager in 2015.[9][10]

Former player Padraic Davis took over as manager in 2018. Davis was given a two-year extension in 2020 until the end of 2022.[11][12] But he quit at the end of the 2021 season after losing to Meath by 22 points, referring to his family, his property market job and the difficulties of managing at that level.[13]

Laois native Billy O'Loughlin was appointed Longford manager in November 2021. [14]

Team as per Longford vs Laois in the last game of the National Football League, 22nd March 2022

• Manager: Billy O'Loughlin[15]
• Management team: Eugene McCormack and Declan Flaherty[16]
• Strength and conditioning coach: Daniel Doherty[17]

Longford's Team of the Millennium [18] was unique as it contained the only father and son combination in the country; Drumlish's Jim Hannify Snr and Jnr. The start of the new millennium also saw the selection of Longford's Team of the Millennium as follows:

All-Irelands

• All-Ireland Junior Football Championship (1)
  • 1937
• All-Ireland Vocational Schools Championship (1)
  • 2003, 2013

Provincials

• Leinster Senior Football Championship 1
  • 1968
• Leinster Minor Football Championship 4
  • 1929, 1938, 2002, 2010
• O'Byrne Cup 3
  • 1965, 2000, 2020[19]

Leagues

• National Football League
• Division 1 (1)
  • 1966
• Division 2 (2)
  • 1937, 1972
• Division 3 (1)
  • 2012
• Division 4 (1)
  • 2011