Longford have ratified Glenn Ryan in the position of senior football manager for a fourth successive season.
The Kildare native has been in the Midlanders’ hotseat since replacing the now-Carlow boss Luke Dempsey in 2008, paving the way for some notable improvements for the Longford team.
After running Kerry quite close in the 2009 qualifiers they shocked Mayo, also in the qualifiers, last summer.
The current year has been a great one for the county, who succeeded in obtaining promotion from Allianz League Division Four and beat Roscommon in the divisional decider.
They were not at their best when humbled by Laois in their Leinster SFC first round meeting, but bounced back to thump neighbours Cavan in the first round of the qualifiers. A subsequent meeting with Tyrone then saw them lead their more illustrious opponents at half-time and give them quite a scare before Mickey Harte’s men eventually won out.
The team certainly did enough though, in the view of the Longford county board, for officials to move quickly to secure Ryan for a fourth year. The deed has now been done with Ryan ratified once again at Tuesday’s county board meeting.
Chairman Pat Cahill was quoted by the Irish Examiner as saying: "We've had a very good season and we would like to think we can build on that with Glenn in charge again."