Sean Martin Long (born 2 May 1995) is an Irish professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who plays as a full-back for club

Cheltenham Town Cheltenham Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England. From the 2021–22 season, the club compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league syst ...

Club career

Reading

Long joined

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from Irish club Cherry Orchard in 2012. He made his professional debut on 26 August 2014 as a second-half substitute in a 1–0 League Cup win over

Scunthorpe United Scunthorpe United Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, England. The side currently competes in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. The tea ...

. On 16 October 2015, Long signed for

League Two The English Football League Two (often referred to as League Two for short or Sky Bet League Two for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League Two from 2004 until 2016) is the third and lowest division of the English Football Lea ...

club Luton Town on an initial one-month

loan In finance, a loan is the lending of money by one or more individuals, organizations, or other entities to other individuals, organizations, etc. The recipient (i.e., the borrower) incurs a debt and is usually liable to pay interest on that d ...

. He made his debut for the club a day later in a 2–1 defeat away to Crawley Town. Long made four further appearances including three in League Two and one in the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

before his loan was extended on 16 November 2015 until 2 January 2016, continuing to cover for Stephen O'Donnell who was recovering from a double hernia injury. He returned to Reading on 5 January 2016 after making 11 appearances for the club in all competitions. On 15 March 2016, Long signed for

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...

club

Braintree Town Braintree Town Football Club is a semi-professional football club based in Braintree, Essex, England. They are currently members of and play at Cressing Road. History The club was formed on 24 September 1898 as Manor Works, the works team o ...

on loan until the end of the season. He made his debut for the club later that day in a 0–0 draw with

Gateshead Gateshead () is a large town in northern England. It is on the River Tyne's southern bank, opposite Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle to which it is joined by seven bridges. The town contains the Gateshead Millennium Bridge, Millennium Bridge, Sage ...

. Long made nine league appearances for Braintree, helping them to secure a place in the

National League play-offs The National League, known as the Vanarama National League for sponsorship reasons, is the highest level of the National League System and fifth-highest of the overall English football league system. It is the highest league that is semi-profes ...

after a 3–0 win at home to

Altrincham Altrincham ( , locally ) is a market town in Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, south of the River Mersey. It is southwest of Manchester city centre, southwest of Sale and east of Warrington. At the 2011 Census, it had a population o ...

on 30 April 2016 and would face Grimsby Town in the semi-finals over two legs. He featured in the semi-final first leg as Braintree earned a 1–0 away win to gain a slender advantage over their opponents. Long featured again in the semi-final second leg, as Braintree were defeated 2–0 after

extra time Overtime or extra time is an additional period of play specified under the rules of a sport to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played onl ...

and 2–1 on aggregate, ending their hopes of promotion. On 9 May 2016, Long was one of 15 Reading youth-team players offered a new contract by the club, with confirmation of his new deal being signed coming on 1 July 2016. On 28 July 2016, following a pre-season

trial In law, a trial is a coming together of Party (law), parties to a :wikt:dispute, dispute, to present information (in the form of evidence (law), evidence) in a tribunal, a formal setting with the authority to Adjudication, adjudicate claims or d ...

, Long signed a six-month loan deal with League Two club Cambridge United. He made his debut on the opening day of 2016–17 in a 1–1 draw at home to

Barnet Barnet may refer to: People *Barnet (surname) * Barnet (given name) Places United Kingdom *Chipping Barnet or High Barnet, commonly known as Barnet, one of three focal towns of the borough below. *East Barnet, a district of the borough below; an ...

. Long made 12 appearances and returned to Reading following the expiration of his loan spell.

Lincoln City

On 5 January 2017, Long signed a loan deal with National League club Lincoln City for the remainder of 2016–17 with a view to a permanent transfer. He made his debut two days later in Lincoln's 2–2 draw away to

Ipswich Town Ipswich Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Ipswich, Suffolk, England. They play in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The club was founded in 1878 but did not turn profession ...

in the FA Cup third round, having entered the match as a

stoppage time Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

substitute and completed the loan spell with 19 appearances. Reading announced that Long would be released when his contract expired at the end of the season. He was named in Lincoln's retained list for 2017–18. Long came on as a 95th-minute substitute as Lincoln beat Shrewsbury Town 1–0 at

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium (branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 200 ...

in the

2018 EFL Trophy Final The 2018 EFL Trophy Final was a football match that took place on 8 April 2018 at Wembley Stadium, London. It was the final match of the 2017–18 EFL Trophy, the 34th edition of the EFL Trophy, a competition for the 48 clubs in EFL League One an ...

on 8 April 2018.

Cheltenham Town

Long signed for League Two club

on 26 June 2018 on a two-year contract after rejecting a new contract with Lincoln. He signed a one-year extension to his contract in September 2019. Cheltenham reached the

League Two play-offs The EFL League Two play-offs are a series of play-off matches contested by the association football teams finishing from fourth to seventh in EFL League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. They are part of the annual Engli ...

in 2019–20 with a fourth-place finish on points per game after the season was suspended in March 2020 because of the

COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom The COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom is a part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). In the United Kingdom, it has resulted in confir ...

, and were beaten 3–2 on aggregate by Northampton Town in the semi-final. Long played every minute of the club's play-off campaign and finished the season with 43 appearances and two goals. He made 23 appearances and scored two goals in

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

as Cheltenham won the League Two title and promotion to League One.

International career

Long has represented the Republic of Ireland at under-16, under-17, under-18 and under-19 level. He made 12 appearances for the under-19 team between 2013 and 2014. Long was called up to the under-21s for the first time in May 2015, along with Reading teammates

Pierce Sweeney Pierce Liam Sweeney (born 11 September 1994) is an Irish professional footballer who plays as a defender for side Exeter City. Career Schoolboy Football Sweeney began his career at Ardmore Rovers in his hometown of Bray, before moving o ...

and Shane Griffin.

Career statistics

Honours

Reading *

U21 Premier League Cup The Premier League Cup is an English football competition run by the Premier League for under–21 sides. History The competition was created in 2013 as the U21 Premier League Cup, an U21 equivalent of the FA Youth Cup (an U18 competition com ...

: 2013–14 Lincoln City *

EFL Trophy The English Football League Trophy, known for sponsorship purposes as the Papa Johns Trophy after restaurant chain Papa John's Pizza, is an annual English association football knockout competition open to all clubs in EFL League One and EFL Le ...

: 2017–18 *

: 2016–17 Cheltenham Town *

EFL League Two The English Football League Two (often referred to as League Two for short or Sky Bet League Two for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League Two from 2004 until 2016) is the third and lowest division of the English Football Lea ...

References

External links

Sean Long profile
at the Cheltenham Town F.C. website
Sean Long profile
at the Football Association of Ireland website * {{DEFAULTSORT:Long, Sean 1995 births Living people Association footballers from Dublin (city) Republic of Ireland association footballers Republic of Ireland youth international footballers Republic of Ireland under-21 international footballers Association football fullbacks Cherry Orchard F.C. players Reading F.C. players Luton Town F.C. players Braintree Town F.C. players Cambridge United F.C. players Lincoln City F.C. players Cheltenham Town F.C. players English Football League players National League (English football) players