Big wins for leaders Longford Town and Cobh Ramblers on Saturday night set up a top-of-the-table clash between the two at Strokestown Road this weekend before another big home crowd.

Longford's excellent run continued with a 3-1 home defeat of Kilkenny City while in-form Cobh trounced Athlone 4-0 at St Colman's Park.

Alan Merriman put Longford in front after 11 minutes before Wesley Byrne added the second three minutes before the break. Trevor Vaughan put Kilkenny back into the game but Longford rode the Kilkenny revival to kill them off with a third goal on 63 minutes from James Farrell. Antonio Izzi scored twice as Cobh Ramblers cruised up into second place with a 4-0 trouncing of Athlone Town. Liam O'Connor opening the scoring on 25 minutes with Izzi adding his two in the space of as many minutes over the half-hour mark. Sean Francis made it 4-0. A rousing second-half display by Home Farm/Everton ended their unenviable run of six straight defeats as they beat Limerick FC 3-1 at Whitehall.

Limerick ran much of the game in the first-half, but Home Farm took control of the match in the second-half to deservedly run out comfortable winners after a seven-minute goal glut.