Long’s road winds back to Cork
“It will be the first time that I’ll be back at Turner’s Cross since I played there for Cork,” says the Tipperary-born Long.
“The one game I played there was against Bray Wanderers. I came on for the last 10 or 15 minutes, and I think we won 1-0. I didn’t get to score, but it was nice to play there and I can’t wait to get back there again.
“Cork gave me my start in professional football and I was treated well during my time there, so I have fond memories of the club and the people. I also have a lot of friends still playing for them, like Dan Murray, Neal Horgan, Danny Murphy and Mark McNulty. I keep in touch with Georgie (George O’Callaghan) too, even though he’s not playing any more. And I was planning to swap jerseys with Daryl Kavanagh, because he is from close to where I grew up, but I’m surprised he’s gone now (transferred back to former club St Pats) — that ruins that idea!
“Coming into the Cork set-up was my first introduction to professional football and it was a big decision for me to quit hurling for it, but I knew once I went to Cork that I’d made the right decision.”
Eight years on from when Long left Turner’s Cross with Kevin Doyle for then Championship side Reading, the stakes are considerably higher as the now 26-year-old prepares for another season in the top flight, beginning with West Brom’s home game against Southampton on August 17 and with at least one high profile addition to the ranks.
“When you sign someone like Nicolas Anelka, it shows the club is aiming high,” says Long. “I think a reasonable aim would be to try to qualify for Europe. We almost did it last season and will learn from that because we probably took our foot off the gas at the wrong time. But it still turned out to be the club’s best season in the Premier League with an eighth-place finish, so we have to build on that.”
For his own part, the striker is anxious to stake a claim to a more permanent place in the team than he managed last season.
“It was frustrating at times,” he concedes. “The manager had two or three strikers to pick for one starting spot — some weeks it was me, some weeks it was Roman Lukaku, or Marc-Antoine Fortune, or Marcus Rosenberg.
“Every time he made a decision, he talked us through it and why it was the best decision for the team. But competition makes me better and the manager has told me I have a big part to play.”
And, it goes without saying, Long will definitely have a big part to play in Ireland’s attempts to reach the World Cup finals, with crucial fixtures against Sweden and Austria next month.
“I think the game against Sweden will be make-or-break for our qualifying campaign,” he observes.
“I feel that we could have won when we played them away and definitely should have beaten Austria at home. I think we are better than those two teams, we just have to go out and prove it now. I still feel we have a great chance of getting second in the group, but the Sweden game is massive.”
This evening’s Cork International Airport Friendly, between Cork City and West Brom kicks off at Turner’s Cross at 7.45pm.
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