Longford's difficulties won't clear quickly

On Soccer:Longford fans may view with some bemusement the idea that their counterparts at Sligo are to meet this evening at the Ark Hotel on the town's High Street to consider chairman Michael Toolan's observation that Rovers are at something of a "crossroads". The Flancare Park faithful, after all, could be forgiven for seeing their own club's preferred road configuration these days as being a cul-de-sac.

Against a backdrop of belt-tightening, some unfortunate financial glitches and (as a consequence) departing players, the imposition of a six-point penalty on the club for failing to provide paperwork required under the licensing scheme was taken by some as further evidence that a club that had come pretty much from nowhere to win three cups and twice represent the league in European had embarked upon its return journey to obscurity.

What's certainly true is these are not good times to be a Longford Town supporter, for the club, now rooted to the foot of the table after defeats by Waterford United and Galway United, faces a battle to stave off relegation and, one presumes, another outflow of squad members.

There have been suggestions that the order might be reversed, but despite several delays with payments to playing staff this season, including one 16-day spell without wages being paid, nobody has at any point actively sought to trigger the mechanism that might have earned them "free agent" status.

A handful of prominent players apparently raised the idea late last week after the club failed to meet a deadline for the payment of all outstanding money, but the club insists cheques for the sums outstanding, believed to be in the region of €20,000, have since been posted to the people involved.

That the amounts at stake are so modest by the standards of, say, what happened at Shelbourne, has only served to heighten frustrations on all sides. Board members believe that the problems have been blown out of proportion, while those on the non-receiving end, so to speak, complain of poor communications and general disorganisation at a club whose progress on the field, as well as in terms of bricks and mortar infrastructure, has not been matched in the development of a solid commercial and administrative management.

Longford's difficulties are hardly unique. Toolan suggested last week that Sligo's problems have been exacerbated by the switch to summer football, and Galway United officials have expressed similar doubts about the supposed benefits of the move.

What's different is that those clubs appear to be streets ahead of Longford in their overall organisation, with a far wider group involved in running various aspects of the operation and, in both instances, a small core employed to oversee the day-to-day business operation.

Longford's chairman, Jim Hanley, concedes that things can be a struggle when so much is undertaken by volunteers and, having become involved with the club when the league was played through the winter, he shares the concerns of his counterparts, particularly after a period in which attendances at Flancare Park have been steadily declining. Last Tuesday's clash against Galway was the worst to date, with just 350 paying in to see a crucial match.

Obviously, such gates have little effect on a wage bill estimated to be around €15,000 a week during the season, and rivals attribute much of the club's plight to its perceived generosity towards part-time players. While Galway and Sligo spend more, for instance, they employ full-time squads which means, among other things, the bulk of the squad live locally, which helps to build a bond with the community.

At Longford, in contrast, a Dublin-based group of players arrive in for home games, play and then depart. That approach always looks justified when you are getting players who would not sign otherwise and, as a result, doing as well as Longford have done under Stephen Kenny and, particularly, Alan Matthews.

The system, though, makes the development of local talent difficult (Jonathan Douglas, for instance, once observed he didn't know any of his team-mates at Monaghan United and found it difficult to settle in the team because he, the only player actually from the locality, trained with a local schoolboy outfit while the rest, Dubs pretty much one and all, gathered in the capital between games) and real loyalty hard to generate.

What reserves of this precious latter commodity continue to exist for the club and around the town are likely to be further tested. Despite the problems - and, some might suggest, because most would struggle to get the same money elsewhere - most of the players are said to be reluctant to undermine a club they feel has generally treated them well. Matthews has probably made his understandable frustration a little too well known for the liking of his employers, but he too has repeatedly expressed the desire to stay at the club as long its current problems are sorted out and its future clarified.

Whether that can be done this year when morale has already been so badly dented and income so dramatically hit seems doubtful, but Hanley, whose own long-term commitment has been a matter for some speculation, insists he is there for the long haul and that the club, after a prolonged spell of frantic growth, is merely undergoing what might be described as an adjustment.

Asked where he sees it in five years, he insists he anticipates it being a top-flight outfit. He may yet prove the sceptics wrong, but one suspects that, without a sudden change of fortune, the club's journey from here to the Premier Division of 2012 might involve an early and undesired detour.