By Larry Cooney
London manager Ciaran Deely says Fearghal McMahon and Killian Butler remain injury doubts for the Exiles’ Round 6 clash with Waterford on 16 March at McGovern Park.
Both are recovering from hamstring injuries.
McMahon hasn’t featured since pulling up against Limerick Round 1, while Butler was injured in a challenge match prior to London’s Round 4 meeting with Antrim.
“I’m hopeful both will be fit to travel to Aughrim to face Wicklow in the final round but it is unlikely they will face Waterford on 16 March,” Deely told the Irish World.
While disappointed with the result in Carrick-on-Shannon, Deely was pleased with his team’s overall performance and believes the experience of playing in front of a crowd of 4,000 will stand to his players.
“I thought there were many fine London performances today especially our defence who worked very hard and were rewarded with many good turnovers,” he said.
“Conor O’Neill and Matthew Moynihan worked particularly hard to keep two of their top forwards in check but we just did not have the quality in finishing off all that possession we enjoyed in the opening twenty minutes.
“In the end I thought that it wasn’t a true five defeat.”
There was good news for Deely and London supporters with captain Liam Gavaghan back to his best form after his recent concussion injury, which saw him miss the defeat to Antrim.
“I was seriously concussed as a result of an injury in training, but I am alright again,” said Gavaghan.
“It was bad at the time but thankfully I have no side-effects and I’m looking forward to the remaining two games, which we have a good chance of winning.”
Meanwhile, Leitrim manager and Cavan native Terry Hyland admitted that his side’s five-point victory was one of their worst performances of their league campaign.
“We have won some of our games by one point but looking back on today’s five-point victory there was also a lot of nerves early in the game which clearly affected some player’s performances,” said Hyland, who complimented London for making it difficult for Leitrim which resulted in his team making so many errors.
“We were perhaps more focused on the result rather than how we were going to achieve it but we got there in the end which is a great credit to these lads who have put in so much work since October.”
You might also be interested in this article
http://35.176.73.46/joyce-plays-down-link-with-robert-emmetts/
