Sport

Ciaran Deely: National League campaign has been a learning curve for London

CIARAN DEELY believes London’s poor decision making in their shot selection cost them dear as they finished up their National Football League campaign with defeat to Wicklow on Sunday.

A goal for Wicklow in first-half stoppage time, followed by four unanswered points at the start of the second-half, was effectively the difference as the visitors snatched their third victory of the campaign.

With the final score 2-10 to 1-10, Deely feels a handful of better choices in front of goal may have been enough for the Exiles to follow up their recent win over Waterford with another.

“I think that our shot selection wasn’t the best in the second half,” he told The Irish Post. “At times we can be good at that. Today we went for a few shots that we shouldn’t have and then we went for a few goals when maybe popping it over the bar was the right option.

“We worked the ball very well through the hand going forward. But it was one of those days when a couple of hand passes went astray. It was a frustrating day, I was happy with the performance and the work-rate was very good, which is great, and our fitness levels have finally caught up with the opposition teams. It’s frustrating we couldn’t finish it off.”

London v Wicklow, National Football League Division 4, Ruislip, 3/4/2016 [Picture: Mal McNally]

Deely switched Mark Gottsche from midfield to centre-half forward, with Liam Gavaghan dropping into the midfield role, and the Wexford native was pleased with the results.

“I really like Mark being centre forward because he can really focus on getting the ball and making things work for us,” he said. “Sometimes when he’s midfield he has to drop back too far.

“I think Liam is the future of London football. He’s a fantastic player, the amount of work that he gets through. We’d love to play him in the half-forward line and just attack more but with James Moran missing the last few games we had to fill a gap in midfield.

“But again, I think we finished the game with five London-born players, which is great. People like Shane Buckley came on and did very well; gave the ball away once but that’s part of his development.

“Mickey Walsh came back in as well. I think at the start of the league if you were to say that we would give so many players debuts and so many London-born players chances and compete in every game, apart from Wexford, you’d probably say that’s a decent league. Not amazing, but good enough for now.”

See More: Ciaran Deely, Featured, GAA, London, London GAA, National League