Article by Kieran Burke – @Kieran_B_Sport.
Stephen Henderson’s return to a League of Ireland dugout quickly turned sour on Saturday night as Longford Town were soundly beaten by their Midland rivals Athlone Town in front of over 1,500 supporters at Bishopsgate. Athlone Town made it two wins from the last three “El Clasico’s” thanks to a well-earned 3-1 victory with Haitian striker Frantz Pierrot scoring a brace before being sent off for two yellow card offences during a dramatic League of Ireland debut.
Following the game, new Longford boss Henderson struggled to contain his emotions with the former Cobh Ramblers chief admitting to BetweenTheStripes.net that he was “furious” with aspects of his team’s display and the fact his players had failed to deliver in front of a bumper home crowd, the largest at the Strokestown road venue since De Town lifted the First Division title back in 2014.
“It’s certainly not nice to be here with Longford and to lose in the manner we did, that really hurts, it stings me actually, it’s really p*ssing me off but we go and we regroup.”
“I don’t want to bluff you here and I’m going to be honest with you, I’m fuming so I have to be very careful how I talk or I’ll get myself into trouble, I’m fuming at the moment”, said an emotional Henderson.
With a daunting trip to title favourites Waterford coming up on Friday, Henderson described how the mood in the Longford dressing room was one of anger following the Athlone defeat and how he must now go about channeling that anger in a positive manner for next week’s game at the RSC.
“The dressing room was angry, people had good points to say, people had a bit of finger pointing going on, ok, as we said to them (the players), the only finger pointing is going to come from me, it was a wakeup call for us tonight.”
“I’m fuming at the moment but I didn’t have a rant and rave at the end of it because I’m angry and I know when I go back and watch the match I’ll see things differently, I need to have a collective mind when I sit down to talk to them (the players), because it’s very east to sit down in a dressing room and start pointing the finger.”
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Listen to the full interview with Stephen Henderson via the Between the Stripes Members Club. Sign up now for access to exclusive LOI content throughout the season such as interviews, post match audio, match reports, pictures from around the grounds, competitions/giveaways, opinion pieces, and more.
A match report from Longford Town 1-3 Athlone Town is also available on the Members Club, here.
