London boss plays down chances of an upset
Instead, London boss Noel Dunning will have a warm welcome for his Leitrim counterpart Dessie Dolan when the sides square off in the Connacht SFC quarter-final at Ruislip.
Revealed Dunning: “I have known Dessie for years. There was only a mile between us back at home in Athlone. He was actually at my wedding last December in Westport. His eldest son Derek would have been around the same age as me so we would be good friends.”
London enter the game as rank outsiders — with the odds of an upset growing by the day with an injury list threatening to swamp the NHS.
“Where to do you want me to start?” he asks before reeling off the knocks, cuts, bruises, sprains and breaks.
“Corner back Sean Campbell (groin), Senan Hehir (hamstring) Eamon Brennan (broken finger), Francis Cleary (broken toe) and our free taker Niall Clinton has a calf injury. They are just the main ones. As a result, chances of an upset are greatly diminished. I am not going to predict a win, that would be folly.
“But we will make it difficult for Leitrim. It is just bad luck that all of these came together. The ground over here is very, very hard which has not helped.”
Hard ground is an ironic complaint for Dunning. London football made more headlines this spring than Paris Hilton following a spat with Leitrim over the Ruislip pitch. The side’s NFL tie was postponed hours before throw in due to waterlogging — leading to a few nasty battles in print, and in Croke Park meeting rooms — over where the replay would be played.
In the end, London won the battle, but lost the war.
“That is all water under the bridge,” he said without a sense of irony. “But London were treated unfairly. We are in the league and should have the same rights as any other team in the league.
We are just glad that the powers that be saw sense. Logic prevailed in the end.”
League football in London is something of a blank canvas for Dunning. Given the migratory nature of his charges, the manager is unsure at the start of each year of what players are at his disposal. This year has been no different.
“The League started with a baptism of fire against a very good Longford team in the first game. But we improved during the league, played well against Monaghan, suffered a setback against Clare, did well against Leitrim when we were beaten by a few late points and we ended up with a win over Carlow.”
He added: “We started training back in November but because of the weather over here we did all our training indoors until March on a running track. It was not exactly ideal but we made the best of the situation that we found ourselves in. The County Board have been great, giving us anything and everything we want. We are training as hard and as professionally as any team over in Ireland.”
But then that damn Celtic Tiger came and plugged the supply line of talent.
“That is it in a nutshell. There are too many attractions at home and London is not as appealing as it once was. Fellas are not making the journey over here as they once were.”
The backgrounds of the players attest to that. In the past the side would have been built around big strong men who toiled for long hours on building sites.
Today, teachers, students and bank officials, are as common as labourers or sparkies in the dressing room. The only constants are championship defeats and heartbreaks.
In fact Leitrim are the only side that London have beaten in 32 years of Connacht SFC action. That came 30 years ago when an unfancied exiles selection recorded 0-9 to 0-6 win in Carrick-on-Shannon.
Ten years ago a last minute penalty denied London a deserved victory against Leitrim in normal time. The Hehir brothers — Senan and Paul — are still fighting the good fight for London.
The bookmakers don’t feel things will be any different, quoting London at 6/1 and Leitrim 1/9 — staggering odds in a two horse race. If this is how London football is perceived then why is Dunning going into his third year in the championship?
“It is about the light at the end of the tunnel. Things will be worse before they get better. And things will get better. There is a lot of young under-age talent coming through. We have a number of London-born players like Phillip Morgan, Paul O’Donoghue, the Hehirs and Eamon Brennan, and now a lot of the clubs have very good underage sections, meaning we are not as reliant on people coming over from Ireland.
“There are kids of all nationalities playing and now Cumman na mBunscoil is being introduced into the primary schools and the games are also getting into the secondary schools.
The clubs would use the schools as nurseries. Things are quite strong at the moment but we are fighting against the tide of people coming over. Teams are punching above their weight — but still fighting.”
B McBrearty (capt); R Walsh, M Kennedy, S Boyle; P Morgan, P O’Donoghue, C Beirne; D Meehan, K Waldron; N Clinton, E Brennan, C Donnellan; G Kane, P Hehir, D Kinneavey.
Subs: E Byrne, S Campbell, D Cannon, F Cleary, D Davey, C Fuller, D Gallagher, C Grant, S Hehir, E Kavanagh, M Mulholland, J Murphy, S McKenzie-Smith, D O’Brien, J O’Connell, BO’Reilly.
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