Match Preview - Longford Town v Bray Wanderers (February 15 2025)

In what is the club’s 40th season in the League of Ireland, Bray begin their 2025 SSE Airtricity Men's First Division campaign away to Longford Town on Saturday. 

 

With the other eight teams kicking off their season on Friday, First Team Coach Paul Heffernan declared “We’re looking forward to it”. 

 

He went to reveal “We got everything we needed out of pre-season, in terms of getting minutes into the legs. We played against some good, quality teams. So, we’re raring to go for the start of the season”. 

 

Since the 2024 Promotion /Relegation Play-off loss to Drogheda United last November, the Seagulls squad has seen nine new arrivals along with the trio of Dylan Barnett, Cian Doyle and Harvey Warren returning to the club. 

 

“We expect to compete. That’s why we’re here. That’s why we brought all these players in” remarked Heffernan. 

 

“We keep getting told how young they are. But it doesn’t matter how young they are – because they are good players. They have the right mentality. They want to play every week; they want to train hard every session before a game.” 

 

Looking to get the campaign off to a good start, Heffernan stated “Every team will probably say the same thing – they want to get a good result on the opening day and build on that. We’re the same. But we know it will be difficult. Every match will be a tough test. We have four away games to start with. We know that’s going to be tough. But we will battle for every point.” 

 

With the play-off’s the aim at the very least, he concluded “Look, where we will be at the end of the season, who knows. But we know one thing – we will compete in every game.” 

 

 

Having picked up knocks in pre-season, defenders Dylan Barnett and Harvey Warren along with midfielder Guillermo Almirall have all resumed training.