Allianz Hurling League Division 2A, London v Derry, Sunday March 1, Ruislip 2pm throw-in
MANAGER Fergus McMahon is adamant that London will improve now that his panel is returning to full strength.
Kilburn Gaels' Henry Vaughan and Conor Hickey made an impact off the bench during Saturday's Allianz Hurling League Division 2A loss against Carlow and McMahon expects several of their club colleagues to return imminently. “We will have all the Kilburn lads coming back soon,” McMahon confirmed. “Henry and Conor came in there and the rest of them will be back this week. Going forward our panel will be getting stronger and I think we can improve all the time.”
Without a full complement London were always likely to struggle in the fixtures with Westmeath and Carlow, who scored 3-7 without reply to seize the initiative at Ruislip. “We just left too much space for them in front of our full-back line in the first-half,” was McMahon's verdict.
“Carlow exploited that, we had awful trouble trying to keep our half backs and midfielders in the right position. There was too much space. In fairness there isn't too much the full-back line can do when a man has 30 yards of space to run into. They were a good team and being realistic you have to say they've more games played than us.”
Despite suffering two heavy defeats McMahon was encouraged by the manner in which London battled against Carlow. “We are trying to get a few lads back to improve each day. The second half was a big improvement. I was a lot happier with that. We closed down the space and I felt that we protected each other a bit better. The midfielders came into a lot more. We will take a positive or two from it. We didn't lie down, we were 3-7 to 0-1 down at half-time. We could have just shut up shop, but we came out to hurl in the second half. I was happy enough with that.”
Derry followed their opening weekend draw away to Kerry with a home triumph over Westmeath so they can be classed as serious promotion contenders.
