DYLAN MCGLADE AND Longford Town face a huge couple of weeks.
Tonight, they play holders Cork City in the FA Cup quarter-finals at the City Calling Stadium.
Earning a place in the last four of the competition would be a big achievement for the First Division side, but they would probably happily lose if it meant winning their next two matches.
They currently sit fourth in the First Division, one point ahead of Drogheda with two games remaining. The champions, most likely current table toppers UCD, will gain promotion to the top flight, while the three teams below them go into the play-offs.
Neale Fenn’s side’s fate will be decided in their last two matches, against the Drogs and UCD, who could potentially have sealed a title triumph by the time they meet.
While some clubs may view it as a distraction, McGlade tells The42 that the Cork cup tie is welcome relief from the intensity of the promotion chase.
With nobody expecting Longford to win, all the pressure, he insists, will be off the hosts.
Although, while Fenn might ideally like to rest certain individuals ahead of the league run-in, the team’s squad at the moment is so thin due to injuries that player rotation is a policy he can scarcely afford to undertake right now.
The priority is getting promoted, but we’re going to be fielding a strong team [against Cork], and we’re really going to go for it,” McGlade adds.
He feels Longford at the very least ought to have secured one of the play-off spots already, but “silly things” have cost them — making individual errors and conceding last-minute goals among other issues.
Nevertheless, there has been renewed scope for optimism recently. De Town have seemingly peaked at the perfect time, winning five games on the bounce as the season approaches its climax. Last week, they beat Cabinteely 4-1, with McGlade grabbing a hat-trick, making it 14 goals for the winger this season. In the First Division, only Shelbourne’s David O’Sullivan (15) has scored more.
McGlade, who has been documenting his experiences via a well-received vlog, says his recent goalscoring form has not happened by accident. The youngster has worked hard in training with shooting practice and positional play.
“The goal return and the assist return has been big, but it’s easy, playing with the likes of Darren Meenan, to get chances,” he explains. “The boys in midfield do a lot of work to get me on the ball and get me those goalscoring opportunities.”
The left winger also spends hours watching YouTube videos and studying players such as Marcus Rashford, Anthony Martial and Eden Hazard, and the various aspects of their game. Like McGlade, these players at their best are all skilful wingers with an eye for a goal.
“It’s good to learn something new,” he says. “It’s something I’m interested in and I enjoy that tactical side of the game and it’s something I’m trying to implement. If the best players in the world are doing it, why can’t you do it?”
Longford’s style of football has helped McGlade to thrive this season. Fenn was an intelligent and technically accomplished player himself back in the day, so it is no surprise that he wants similar qualities in his team.
“I play left wing on the team-sheet, but the gaffer, the way he likes to play, there’s so much fluidity between the front three,” McGlade explains. “If I want to drop into midfield, I can. He kind of gives me that licence to move around and if you’re playing with intelligent players, they can see that.
“So if I move into the central position, Jamie Doyle, who’s been playing up front for us the last couple of weeks, will pull out wide. Or if I jump into midfield, one of the midfielders will pull out left. It’s about constantly moving and that’s helped as well in terms of getting myself into goalscoring positions.
I have that freedom that I’m not just hugging the touchline, and it’s paying off for us. If you see some of the team moves for the goals, you’d see that fluidity in the game.”
It feels like a good time for both McGlade and Longford, but it it’s been far from plain sailing for the player or the club of late.
The Dubliner spent his early days playing for Swords Rovers, Malahide United and Shelbourne’s underage teams. His father coached him at Swords and was a big influence on his early development.
“I remember my dad used to put restrictions on me in the games. My favourite player at the time was Ryan Giggs. Everything was Ryan Giggs to me. He used to say to me, ‘alright, you can go on a Giggsy.’ That would mean I was able to just run with the ball and go past as many players as I want, but other than that, I would have to play for the team.”
And to this day, McGlade Senior is his son’s most passionate follower.
“He’s my worst critic and my biggest influence at the same time. If I’m shit, he’ll say I was shit. If he thought I’d played well, he’d still say I was shit, just to make sure I always try to improve and go one better.
“At the same time, behind my back, he’ll say nothing but good things.”
McGlade got his big break at 16, when he signed for Middlesbrough, despite admitting to never really being a “standout” in his age group as a youngster.
“There was always 15 or 20 other players in the league that were much better than I was,” he recalls. “At U15, something just happened, and same as this season, I just started scoring loads.
“I was playing centre mid at the time for Shels. I was playing really well and we got into the final of the League Cup against Joeys.
“Sam Byrne and Dylan Hayes were both playing in the team at the time — they probably were two of the best players in the country at our age. There were lots of scouts watching them. I just happened to have a very good game in that match. Although we lost in extra time, that was the Saturday, and by Monday, I was offered trials by about seven or eight different teams.
“After going on trial with Middlesbrough, I got offered a contract after three days. I ended up going there and turning down a few different teams — Tottenham, Sunderland, and Celtic [among them]. Middlesbrough just felt really homely.”
Having made the big move to England, a mixture of homesickness and bad fortune meant this experience quickly turned sour.
Anyone that says they don’t get homesick is a liar, because you’re going over there at 16. I was actually on holidays at the time in France, because there was a bit of conflict between Shels and Middlesbrough about payments and stuff like that. I didn’t think it was going to go through for a while. We’d gone on holidays and got a call while we were in France to say everything had been sorted. ‘It’s gone through, so Dylan needs to be in Newcastle in five days to come in for pre-season training.’ So I actually flew from Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris straight to Middlesbrough with a suitcase with nothing but shorts and sandals in it. It was crazy!
“I had a really bad ankle break [shortly after the move], I suffered with homesickness [as a result]. You’re 16 years of age, training by yourself, in the gym by yourself, going home to a room by yourself. At the time I was the only international player in the reserves and the 18s, so everybody would go home at the weekend and I was staying in a small village called Darlington, which was just beside the training ground. There was a fella that lived with me, but he was from London so he would go home at the weekends.
“I only started to settle in the last three or four months of my time there, but by then, they had already made a decision. I’d been let go, but stuff like that really helps build your character. I’m much stronger from it now mentally, and I think if I did go back, which is everybody’s dream and hope, it would stand to me.”
Life as a footballer can be an incredibly tenuous existence. Fans often only get to see the good or bad performances on the pitch, without fully appreciating the roller-coaster of emotions players tend to experience even outside of matchdays. Despite still being young, McGlade has already experienced his fair share of highs and lows in the game.
“Most people wouldn’t know that I’ve broken both my legs and both my ankles and had really serious injuries,” he says. “I’ve had three surgeries. People would just see ‘oh, he’s playing well now’. I suffer from really bad swelling of my ankles days after matches because there’s so much crap in them — because of the injuries they swell up and they reoccur.
Luckily enough, it hasn’t happened this season, but last season, after one of the games against Athlone, I actually was in work the next morning and I had to call in, because I couldn’t actually walk. I hadn’t taken a bang, I hadn’t been tackled or anything like that, but I had to get crutches out because I couldn’t actually put my foot down on the floor. It’s the stuff that fans don’t really see and the stories they don’t really see.”
He continues: “When I first came back from England, I was part of the Shels U19s and I had been on trial at Oxford during the pre-season. They offered me a contract, then they came back a couple of days later and said ‘there’s no money there’. They thought there was, but there wasn’t.
“They said ‘come back in January’. There were a few players on loan — they were paying for some of their wages, but they’d be gone then. The funds would free up and four weeks before January, I broke my leg.
“So if you ask anybody that knows me and knows my stories, they’ll tell you that I’ve had nothing but bad luck. Thankfully now, things seem to be going my way and I’m catching the rub of the green. It’s been long overdue as it’s been a tough few years.
“Fans don’t get to see that we’re just normal people. I work in a garage and play football at the same time.”
After the blow of being let go by Middlesbrough in addition to the injury turmoil, McGlade recovered gradually. He signed for Shels, linking up with their underage team initially before joining the senior side. After a difficult start, the club’s patience with the player was finally rewarded. In 2015, the winger enjoyed a stellar season, as he was named the club’s player of the year, in addition to featuring in the First Division team of the season.
“I came back from Middlesbrough, signed for Shels U19s, broke my leg within five or six weeks, but thankfully Johnny McDonnell had already signed me for the first team,” he remembers. “I was in with the first team for the 2014 season. I ended up making my debut for the last game of the season down in Cobh.
Johnny ended up leaving and Kevin Doherty took over for the 2015 season. To be honest, I owe a lot to Kev. He had no reason to take me on. He hadn’t really seen me play. I would have said I was crap coming back from injury. I wasn’t good in training or anything like that. I was doing the FÁS course in Irishtown at the time and Kev signed a guy called Mark Sandford. He was in my course and Kev was just keeping an eye on him in one or two games and I was doing really well, so Kev ended up taking a chance on me.
“I picked up an injury before the first game of the season, missed five or six games and then played probably every game from then on. I owe a lot to Kev for believing in me and he was kind of the same as [Neale Fenn] now. He kind of saw my ability and just let me go and play, just gave me that freedom and the confidence to perform.
“Me and him sometimes look back and have a chat and say ‘that season, we should have done better’. We had a bad patch midway through. I think we picked up three points from four games and it really hampered our chances of going for the play-offs and getting promoted.”
While Shels missed out on promotion to the 2016 top flight, McGlade didn’t. He was signed by St Pat’s on account of his impressive performances. The transition, however, was far from smooth. With the likes of Billy Dennehy, Mark Timlin and Conan Byrne also competing for places out wide, McGlade found regular first-team football hard to come by. And while he left Richmond Park after a single season, spending time there was not without merit.
“Sometimes I feel like I could have been given more of a chance than I was,” he says. “I had one or two games where I thought I might get a look in. But it wasn’t meant to be and you can’t really take players like Conan out.
I’ve implemented a lot of things I’ve learned from Conan this season. I used to not really get into the box if the ball was going down the other side. I wouldn’t really make the backpost and every time the ball is going down the left, I’d see Conan flying in at the backpost, getting tap ins or the ball would ricochet off his face and go in and stuff like that. I always used to slag him and say: ‘You score shite goals.’ He always used to say to me: ‘No one is going to remember those goals, they’re only going to remember I scored so many goals and a few crackers.’
“[This season] I’ve come in and scored five or six goals now, coming in late at the back post, making runs in at the backpost.”
Dylan McGlade's second goal v Cabinteely last Saturday night!
— Longford Town FC (@LongfordTownFC) September 3, 2018
Nothing beats being there!
@LonfordTownFC v @CorkCityFC
Friday September 7th, City Calling Stadium, 7:30PM#CmonDeTown pic.twitter.com/bNyUoe50CR
After Pat’s didn’t work out, McGlade linked back up with Doherty, who was by then assistant at Longford to Alan Mathews. Although it was “a good deal,” it was not exactly a convenient club to play for location-wise, given that he was working in Dublin.
“At that time, I was working in River Island. It was tough, because there wasn’t a lot of flexibility in my work schedule. Sometimes I’d be finishing work at half two and I’d just have to leave, go straight to the bus stop, get a bus to Drumcondra, get a train from Drumcondra to Leixlip, to make training.
“I used to work on a Saturday until one o’clock. And Saturdays were matchdays most weeks. I found that very tough as well. That year, the division was really just a dogfight, it didn’t really suit me. Although we had a very good team that year, we struggled to perform as a collective. I think all these factors led into why Longford didn’t have that great of a season. It culminated in Alan and Kev unfortunately stepping down.
“Now, [Neale Fenn] has come in and he kind of has a new take on how he wants to play and added some fresh air to the place. Even the likes of social media, with the club and with the gaffer, it’s really taken off. It’s really increasing the visibility and the club are doing excellent work to start rebuilding with the community. I remember my first year at Shels, Longford were a massive club in the First Division. The last games of the season, they won the league that year, there was over 1,000 people at the City Calling Stadium every year.
“Even Daire Doyle, our assistant manager, played for Longford. He tells me about the days they used to get 1,500 or 2,000 people at games. I think all this positive work is really starting to pay dividends towards the end of the season.”
He continues: At the start of this year, I ended up getting a job in the garage in Swords. There’s so much flexibility, the managers are absolutely brilliant. I want a couple of days off or I’m feeling a bit tired, they’re really flexible with me. But even this week, my girlfriend was visiting and I kind of just dropped my manager a text. We had a massive cup game on Friday and my partner’s visiting. ‘Is it okay if I only work one day this week and I’ll make it up over the next few weeks?’ He was like: ‘Of course, what days do you want to work?’”
While both McGlade and the club are flying at the moment, it hasn’t always been so simple. After initially joining, it did not go well, to the point where the youngster seriously considered quitting football for a two-three-week period.
“I was just going through a tough time,” he explains. “My long-term partner lives in England — that was a factor. I wasn’t really playing well, I wasn’t in form, I was struggling.
“Everybody has high points and low points, that was just one of them. Thankfully, my partner and my mam and dad, good friends of mine talked me out of it and brought me round.
“It was just a tough time for myself mentally and it’s good to put stuff like that out there to show everybody that it’s not all happy days and smiles — stuff does affect people.
“But thankfully that’s all in the past now and I’m fully committed and concentrated on my football and, like everybody else in this country, trying to make a career out of it.”
In between stints at Longford for the 2017 and 2018 League of Ireland seasons, McGlade made a brief return to England, lining out with non-league side Blyth Spartans. He joined the club having initially gone on trial at League One side Bristol Rovers.
“I ended up doing really well [on trial at Bristol Rovers], but things behind the scenes didn’t work out. It’s not as straightforward as you going there, playing really well and getting offered a contract. There are a lot of other factors. So in my case, age was a factor, negotiations with other players were a factor. It ended up coming to nothing unfortunately.
“But I built a few connections there, moved back up to Newcastle where my partner lives, and Alan Armstrong was the manager at Blyth who was a coach for Middlesbrough U16s. I got on the phone to him, explained the situation and he took me down.”
McGlade was impressed with aspects of life in the Conference North. At Stockport, he played in front of 9,500 fans. However, other characteristics were less appealing.
“Half the teams in the division were full-time nearly, but Blyth had just been promoted the year before from the Northern League, so there was still that sense of non-league about it.
“The professionalism over here is just ten-fold to what it is over there. The boys at Blyth, they just enjoyed playing with their mates, they enjoyed the football, they only finished a point outside the play-offs to go and get promoted into the National League, so on the pitch, things were going as planned.
But some of the stuff that you saw, if we won an away game, the chairman would put a crate of beer on the bus afterwards for the journey home and stuff like that. But all those boys were working, training twice a week and then working on a Saturday, so it was a bit mad.
“One of the boys used to bring a Subway onto the coach for away games — you just wouldn’t see it here. There were definitely some crazy things I was looking at going: ‘Jesus, I just couldn’t do that.’ Some of the boys thrived in that environment. I’m really stiff — I like regimented training, regimented strength and conditioning, full-time football, so it just didn’t suit me.”
In the end, Fenn persuaded McGlade to return to Longford, with club and player alike reaping the benefits of this deal ever since.
“It’s paying off now and I’m loving every moment of playing on the pitch. I’m hoping as much as possible we can win these last two games and prolong the league another six weeks, so that I don’t have to stop playing football. I’m in that good form — I don’t want to stop, I just want to continue on.”
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