Longford bidding to end barren run

National League/Weekend preview: After a disappointing start to the new campaign, Longford bid to kick start their season against Bohemians tonight at Flancare Park where the home support will hope to see their side secure a first league win in eight outings.

"They have decent players and have been on a bit of a run," says manager Alan Matthews of tonight's opponents, "but I'm more interested in seeing us get our collective act together. The lads actually played quite well last week in Drogheda and if we can reproduce that sort of form this evening then we should be okay but the first few weeks were certainly a disappointment."

The hosts continue to be without long-term injury victims John Martin and Dean Fitzgerald. Bohemians, meanwhile, will feature former Longford players Stephen O'Brien and Barry Ferguson, the former skipper at Flancare, who made a major impact for his new club in recent games.

At Belfield Park, UCD take on a Sligo Rovers side that Pete Mahon observes have made just the sort of start to the new campaign that the students managed when newly-promoted last year.

"They've adapted to it very well so far," says Mahon, "while we're disappointed to have about four points less on the board than we would have had at the same point in last year's campaign.

"We've been playing some pretty good football without getting the sort of return we've deserved really and, for all their ability, we'll look on this as another opportunity to maybe pick up some points."

UCD have Paul Byrne back from a thigh strain that kept him out of the Bohs game last week while Conan Byrne is out and may need surgery on a troublesome shin splints problem.

Sligo have a full strength squad for the first time this season and Seán Connor is pleased with what he feels has been a highly satisfactory start to the season.

"We acquitted ourselves well against Shelbourne last week and have done generally okay at home," he says. "We're still a bit fragile on the road, particularly against the better sides but we're still improving."

l The league have switched the Shelbourne/Bohemians game back 24 hours to May 20th ( 7pm) while the Derry City against Cork City match has been switched again, this time to the 20th as well when Setanta Sports will broadcast proceedings live.