LONDON captain Lorcan Mulvey is predicting a tight contest when Galway visit Ruislip for their Connacht SFC quarter final clash on May 25.
The Cavan native who was nominated for an All Star last season — London’s first in football — has been named the Exiles’ captain ahead of the tie.
Now four weeks out and following an indifferent Division 4 campaign, Mulvey forsees a close encounter which has become typical of London in Ruislip in the championship under Paul Coggins.
“It is good for us to be critical of ourselves and good for our supporters to be critical,” he told The Irish Post.
“We expect more from ourselves on the panel. Galway will be favourites when they come to Ruislip but people will expect us to put it up to them and we will expect that too.
“Championship games in Ruislip have been tight in recent years and we don’t expect this one to be any different.”
Reflecting on recent National League form, which left London disappointed, the Fulham Irish player said: “It has been difficult for us for reasons that have been well documented by Paul [Coggins] in the media already.
“I thought this year we might have had a better [campaign] but we have improved. Ten years ago London would have taken someone’s hand and arm off if they were offered a win and a draw. It has been difficult but we are better than what we used to be.”
Mulvey said he was surprised at the decision to name him as captain at the beginning of the season. The appointment was only recently made official after he suffered a number of injuries.
“I have never captained at inter-county level. But I have captained Fulham Irish, my club at home and other teams down the years so it is something that is familiar to me,” he said.
“I have always been outspoken on any team I’m on but Paul could have picked any number of senior players [to captain London], there’s a lot of experience there.
“Seamus Hannon did a fantastic job last year and I was surprised he wasn’t left there.
“I was told at the start of the year that I was being made captain for the League and I expected that to run into the championship. I haven’t been very lucky with injuries this year and that has made the captain’s role difficult because I haven’t always been on the pitch.”
Speaking about the extra responsibility that comes with his new role he said: “You have to make yourself available to players. They might be daunted about going to management about something so it’s another outlet.
"It does happen fairly regular. Some of the other senior players would be well plugged-in and the management team have always been open to any approach.
“I am the GPA rep as well. I feel I have done most of my talking with London on the pitch and I want it to be the same this year.”
To fine tune their preparation, London will undertake a number of training camps before May 25.
“We’ve got four weeks and we need to get an idea of what way we’ll be playing on the day. We need to get down to the nitty gritty, know exactly what everyone is doing, make sure everything is spot on. I’m hoping to get back up to full fitness in the coming weeks.”
