In Focus / Longford Under-21 footballers: Manager Luke Dempsey tells Ian O'Riordan he sees a bright future in the senior championship for his current crop of under-21 players

Longford can be competitive in the Leinster senior football championship, according to their manager Luke Dempsey, and if everything goes to plan they can't be ruled out of winning it. But that, Dempsey is quick to add, will be in three or four years' time, assuming the current under-21 team follow any sort of natural progression.

On Sunday Longford make a rare appearance in the Leinster under-21 final, against Laois, having gone against most expectations to get this far. In some ways that is explained by the natural progress of the county's minor team, who in 2002 collected their first Leinster title in 64 years.

Dempsey's vision has also played a part. He achieved similar success with the Westmeath underage team, but then missed out when they won their first Leinster senior title in 2004, having been replaced by Páidí Ó Sé.

When he took over as Longford manager last season he agreed to take on the under-21 team as well. That, he knew, was the way forward.

His first big experience with Longford was a nightmare, however, when Dublin beat them by 19 points in the first round of last summer's Leinster championship. With 10 of this under-21 team now part of the Longford senior panel, Dempsey already expects a better show when they meet Dublin again on June 4th.

"Right now we have a very committed bunch," says Dempsey, "with great camaraderie. All the under-21s also train with the senior team, and that's worked out quite well, and makes for some very good training sessions. One of the things I've done is work less on the physical side, and more on the football side, and like any county it takes a while for the team to get used to that.

"That was a very heavy defeat to take against Dublin last year, no doubt about it. And we were very down for a while. We had to change things and took a bit of a gamble in bringing in so many youngsters. It does take time for them all to settle down, but so far anyway the gamble appears to be paying off. I think if we'd lost early in this championship the whole thing would have backfired.

"But already this has lifted any of the doom and gloom that was still hanging over us from last year. So I think we'll be in good shape going into the championship no matter if we win or lose on Sunday."

Laois have the most impressive record at underage level in recent years, but Longford already surprised Kildare in the semi-final, and with home advantage on Sunday can't be ruled out of this one either. Team captain Shane Mulligan has been proving a true inspiration at wing back.

Dempsey's long-term plan for Longford is still what matters most, not Sunday. Along with selector Declan Rowley he has the county looking for the finest football talents available: "It hasn't been easy to unearth these kind of players in a so-called smaller county like Longford, but we had to make sure we at least got the best under-21 team available to us.

"I've found that in smaller counties you do have a harder time getting players to commit to the county panel, for obvious reasons. Their chances of success are a lot smaller. You just have to try to persuade them when starting out that if we do get everyone available to us then we can have a strong panel. But the fact is there is very small number of clubs in Longford.

"Of course it's a little too soon for this crop of players to make their true mark at senior level. But when they get to ages 23 or 24 I think it can be different. Once they get the experience and develop physically there's no reason why they can't be equally competitive at senior level.

"But I think the success of this team has at least left us thinking we have a chance to make amends on June 4th, and at least show that last year's 19-point defeat wasn't a true reflection of Longford football. The fact that it's been played on our own turf and not in Croke Park also makes a huge difference. I know the smaller teams go into Croke Park looking over the shoulder, and it is a very difficult place to play Dublin. We won't be worried about that this June."