'There will be nobody here backing off or lying down' - Defiant Daire Doyle insists his side will fight to the end as Longford Town's relegation troubles deepen

Longford Town boss Daire Doyle insists that his side fight to the bitter end as they look to incredibly stave off relegation to the First Division.

Town are languishing at the foot of the Premier Division table and are winless in 23 league games.

But their manager insists that his side, who have displayed many battling qualities throughout the season, will continue to fight to the very end.

“It’s a big gap,” he said after Saturday’s defeat to Finn Harps. “Stranger things have happened in football in the past.

“You only have to look at West Brom as an example years ago when Horsfield scored the goals to keep them up. Everyone wrote them off with ten or twelve games to go.

“We don’t know what’s going to happen in football, but one thing you can be sure of is that we have an excellent and committed group of players who are together, and they will continue to give it their all.

“We have a group and staff in there that are as far as I’m concerned, the best in the country.

“I know the work we put in, and I’ve been around the game a long time. I’ve been in England and at other League of Ireland clubs and the work we put in is as good as you will get.

“But we haven’t seen the points to back up the work that we’ve been doing. It’s from no lack of effort. We will continue to fight, and we won’t let anyone’s heads drop.

“We can’t allow that to happen with 12 games to go because if we do it would become a bleak time.



“Regardless of what happens we have a lot of personal pride and will continue to work to be professional to give everything for the club because I won’t accept anything less.”

The Red and Black, despite a 3-0 loss, impressed at times against Harps, but they were unable to make many of their chances pay.

That inability to score, or pounce on big moments in games is something that Doyle hopes will swing in the coming weeks.

“I’d love if some of that [luck] comes our way,” he explains. “One thing that can’t be taken away from this group is the work and the effort that they put into games every single week.

“Should that happen in the next couple of weeks, and we get that bit of luck I’ll be delighted. But we’ll continue to go at it and stand up to the challenge with 12 games to go.

“There will be nobody here backing off or lying down here whatsoever.”



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