Preview: Rovers take on Longford

Sligo Rovers face Longford Town on Friday evening at Bishopsgate in the SSE Airtricity Premier Division.

Rovers have enjoyed an unbeaten start to the league season with a draw and a win.

Rovers will face Longford for the first time in five seasons in the league. There has been two FAI Cup meetings in the meantime with Town winning in 2017 and 2018.

In team news, Lewis Banks will have a late fitness test on a thigh strain. Rovers have no other concerns.

Liam Buckley said: “We were happy with the result in Waterford. There is room for improvement on the performance. We are in some transition, with the new players we have brought in this season, and the most important thing is to pick up points. We’ve done that so far and hopefully we can continue on Friday evening.

“The other positive was how we stuck at it last week. We went 1-0 down which we were disappointed about. Ed made a couple of great saves and the goals we scored to win the game were top class.

“Romeo’s finish was outstanding and Jordan’s shot, it was right in the angle of the goal and you couldn’t position it any better.

“We’ve got a good group of players here and they’re all going to want to play. The most important thing is to keep everyone fit and we go from there.

“We’ve been busy in training the last week and we’re looking forward to another game. 

“Longford have done very well so far. They’ve kept their core group and added even more quality as well. I’ve no doubt that it helps them to have that consistency there from last season.

“They have good energy and drive in the team. It was a brilliant year for them last season.

“They showed character to get promoted through the difficult play-offs in the First Division and we saw it again last week in Dalymount when coming from 2-0 down.

“They’re going to put it up to us, we know that. We go there looking to build on the win last week.”