LONDON hurling manager Fergus McMahon declared himself happy with his side’s performance in their opening game of 2016.
A new-look London hurling side had some bright performances, most notably Kevin O’Loughlin and Shane O’Donnell in the corner forward roles, and McMahon admits the showing was as good as he could have expected, despite a final score of 2-16 to 0-13 in Westmeath's favour.
“We’re happy enough with the performance it’s just a shame the result went against us, which is obviously disappointing,” he told The Irish Post. “But from a team point of view and a work-ethic point of view I was happy enough with the shift.
“It was as good as to be expected, to be honest, because we’ve had no game time; no games of that intensity for a while, which was a handicap to us.”
Team captain Tadhg Healy had to sit the game out with a hand injury sustained in a training session, although McMahon is hopeful his Robert Emmetts team-mate can recover in time for the trip to Carlow this weekend.
If not, stand-in skipper Noel McDonnell of Kilburn Gaels is an adequate replacement captain, with McMahon impressed with his leadership skills on Sunday.
“He done well, he’s been flying in training – very vocal – so we felt he was up to the job and he didn’t let us down.”
With Sean Treacys forward O’Loughlin scoring 10 points and Fulham Irish man O’Donnell grabbing two, McMahon is excited by his current full-forward line.
“We thought we’d have some success with the full-forward line, putting balls into them, but with the breeze it was tough. When we did get good balls into them, I thought they used it very well. We have as good a corner forwards in London that there has been for some time.”
