Shane Long
Personal information
Full name	Shane Patrick Long
Date of birth	22 January 1987 (1987-01-22) (age 22)
Place of birth	Gortnahoe, Ireland
Height	5 ft 10 in (1.80 m)
Playing position	Forward
Club information
Current club	Reading
Number	9
Senior career1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
2004–2005 2005–	Cork City Reading	001 00(0) 102 0(17)
National team2
2006 2007–	Republic of Ireland B Republic of Ireland	01 0(0) 10 0(3)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 23:08, 21 June 2009 (UTC). 2 National team caps and goals correct as of 17:13, 30 May 2009 (UTC). * Appearances (Goals)

Shane Patrick Long (born 22 January 1987) is a professional footballer with Reading. Before concentrating on soccer, he was an Under-18 hurler with Tipperary GAA in the All-Ireland Minor Hurling Championship.

Contents 1 Early career 2 Reading 3 International career 4 Career statistics 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Early career

Long was born in Tullamore, County Offaly, Ireland.^[1]. He was a talented hurler and appeared in two All-Ireland Minor Hurling Championship (Under 18) semi-finals with Tipperary at Croke Park^[2], being regarded as a pacey and promising forward.^[3] Long was also playing soccer at this time, and started his career in the game with Tipperary club St Kevins's in 1998, joining St. Micheals in 2000. Soon after he was discovered and brought to Cork City with a scholarship on 1 July 2004 by Pat Dolan. When ready, Long was called to the first team squad for the 2005 season when manager Pat Dolan was replaced by Damien Richardson, and the new manager awarded him his senior début in the Setanta Sports Cup in March 2005. However, following Dolan's consultation with his brother, Reading coach Eamonn Dolan, Reading made bids for both Long and Kevin Doyle. Cork were forced to sell Doyle due to a contract clause, but the circumstances surrounding Long's transfer were not disclosed. Long signed as a Reading player on 7 June 2005.

[edit] Reading

In Reading's Championship-winning 2005–06 campaign, he scored three goals in 10 substitute appearances, making his first league start on 17 April 2006 in the 3-1 home victory against Stoke City. For the first season, he was mostly second choice in the pecking order behind fellow Irishman Kevin Doyle, Dave Kitson and Leroy Lita. He started all of the games in Reading's FA Cup campaign and scored one goal.^[4]

On 4 July 2007, Long signed an improved four-year contract to keep him at Reading until the end of the 2010–11 season.^[5]

On 16 March 2008, in a 2-1 defeat at Anfield against Liverpool Long was involved in an incident as to where he flung his shirt to the ground, citing frustration at his performance and frustration with the match officials, after being subbed by manager Steve Coppell. In the post match interview, Steve Coppell made a stern point in that "It will not happen again." Long made a fulsome apology on the official club website.^[6]

His 2008 ended happily after scoring an equaliser in a 1-1 draw at Southampton, before ending the season with a brace in a 2-0 victory at Norwich City.

[edit] International career

Long's form for Reading in the 2005–06 season earned him four Republic of Ireland U19 caps.^[7]

Due to injuries to his Reading team mate Kevin Doyle and Sunderland's Stephen Elliott,^[8] he earned his first senior cap for the Republic of Ireland in their 2-1 win away to San Marino on 7 February 2007.^[9] When Long earned his second cap as a substitute against Slovakia on 28 March 2007 he became the first person to play both hurling and international football at Croke Park, having been part of the Tipperary team for the All-Ireland Minor semi-finals in 2003 and 2004.^{[10] [11]} Long scored his first international goal in a friendly 1-1 draw against Bolivia on 26 May 2007.^[12], and followed this with a brace in Ireland's 4-0 win over Denmark on 22 August 2007.

He has been nominated as the Football Association of Ireland Young Player of the Year for 2007.^[13][14]

[edit] Career statistics

All-Time Club Performance

Club	Season	League		FA Cup		League Cup		Europe		Total
		App	Goals	App	Goals	App	Goals	App	Goals	App	Goals
Reading	2009-10	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	4	0
	2008-09	42	9	1	0	3	0	0	0	46	9
	2007-08	29	3	2	0	1	0	0	0	32	3
	2006-07	21	2	1	1	2	1	0	0	24	4
	2005-06	11	3	4	1	0	0	0	0	15	4
Reading Total		107	17	8	2	6	1	0	0	121	20
Career Total		107	17	8	2	6	1	0	0	121	20
Last updated 22 September 2009 (Statistics for career in English leagues only).

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Shane Long profile at readingfc.co.uk
• Shane Long career stats at Soccerbase

v • d • e Reading F.C. – current squad 1 Federici · 3 Armstrong · 4 Cissé · 5 Mills · 6 Gunnarsson · 7 Tabb · 8 Matějovský · 9 Long · 10 Hunt · 11 McAnuff · 14 Kébé · 16 Ingimarsson · 18 Church · 19 Robson-Kanu · 20 Karacan · 21 Hamer · 22 Kelly · 23 Rasiak · 24 Bertrand · 25 Sigurðsson · 26 Pearce · 27 Davies · 32 Vasilev · 33 Bryant · 34 Howard · 35 Cummings · 48 O'Dea · Manager: Rodgers

Persondata
NAME	Long, Shane Patrick
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Footballer
DATE OF BIRTH	22 January 1987
PLACE OF BIRTH	Gortnahoe, County Tipperary, Republic of Ireland
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH