After two weeks on the road, Ramblers are back at home this week as they face in-form Longford Town at St Colman’s Park. Martin Cambridge’s side have found a new lease of life recently and earned their first away point of the season last week with a 0-0 draw in Finn Harps. This was marred however by a bad injury to goalkeeper Shane Hallahan who is expected to be out for six to eight weeks with a ruptured meniscus.

This game sees top against bottom in the First Division. Longford recently climbed top of the table with a 2-0 win over Wexford Youths. They have won their last five games in all competitions and the last match they failed to win was the 0-0 draw at St Colman’s Park at the start of June. This shows that Ramblers will be up against it on Saturday but it is a tie that they are relishing.

The sides’ other meeting this season saw ‘De Town’ win 2-0 up in Longford and Cobh will want revenge this week as they look to move up the table.

The Rams have a number of new signings in their squad. Stephen Kenny, Nathaniel Gumbo and Brendan Kenny will all hope to make their home debuts while Kynan Rocks will also be looking to play following his re-signing. Robert Birdsall should replace the injured Hallahan in goal with young goalkeeper Eoghan Daly expected to feature on the bench. Eoin Hastings and Alan O’Flynn will miss the game with hamstring and back injuries respectively and both will go for scans early next week to determine the extent of their injuries. Rob Waters is also unavailable due to work commitments.

Longford will be without the suspended Glen O’Connor for the game but have no other absentees for the trip down South.

Sometimes it can be difficult to pick out a star player for a team but there’s no doubt that David O’Sullivan is Longford’s talisman. As the league’s top scorer, he is a player that everyone knows to look put for and the Cobh defence will do well to keep him at bay on Saturday night.

With a large away following expected at St Colman’s Park, there should be a great atmosphere at the ground and hopefully an entertaining game to match it.

Cobh Ramblers

Injured: Shane Hallahan, Eoin Hastings, Alan O’Flynn

Doubtful: None

Suspension: None

Unavailable: Rob Waters

Longford Town:

Injured: None

Doubtful: None

Suspensions: Glen O’Connor

Referee: Eoghan O’Shea

Assistants: Ken Hennessy, Alan Dunne

Fourth Official: David Keeler

Venue: St Colman’s Park

Kick Off: 7.45pm