Ryan reappointed as Longford manager

Glenn Ryan will remain in charge of the Longford senior footballers next year, following confirmation of the Kildare man's reappointment.

The former Lilywhites defender and captain guided Longford to one of the results of the 2010 Championship when they shocked Mayo into submission in the first round of the All-Ireland qualifiers.

Down ended their run in the next round, however, and the rest of Longford's campaign was largely forgettable with a Leinster SFC preliminary round defeat to Louth coming on the back of disappointing displays in the National League.

Ryan's charges lost five of their eight league matches and ended up finishing third-from-bottom in Division 4, above London and Kilkenny.

However, last month's victory over Mayo and the Longford minors' recent Leinster title success will give the county hope for 2011 and beyond.

Ryan met with the players last week and they backed him for a third season at the helm, as subsequently did the Longford County Board.

The 37-year-old Round Towers clubman believes that Longford's current crop of players can continue to make strides.

"There has been a lot of criticism of this team. I suppose when you look at the league table it is easy to criticise but when you look deeper beyond all that, in a lot of those games the lads worked really hard," he told the Longford Leader.

"They stuck at it when there is no doubt other teams wouldn't have. Those fellas should be very proud of the way that they applied themselves for the last six months."

Even in the 1-14 to 1-10 defeat to Down in Newry 10 days ago, Ryan found plenty of positives as his side fought back from being eight points behind.

"There are improvements at our end. At the end of the game Longford finished the stronger team, finished the better team and played probably the majority of the second half in that mode. The lads are capable of getting to that level."