National Football League Divison 4 - London v Carlow
National Football League Divison 4 - London v Carlow
January 29, 2018
National Football League Division 4
London 2-9
Carlow 2-14
London kicked off their first of 7 home National Football League games with a tough fixture against Carlow who had the year before knocked them out of the All-Ireland Championship in the first Qualifying Round by the slimmest of margins. London however, were hoping for a repeat result of last year’s National Football League where they beat Carlow convincingly on the day by 5 points.
London would have been hoping that the home advantage and home support would give them an edge in the early stages of this tie but it was not to be as a strong Carlow outfit intent on building on the strides they made last year hit the ground running in McGovern Park Ruislip and were soon the beneficiaries of a 4-point lead inside 7 minutes leaving the home side and their supporters stunned. It was no sooner that Carlow had taken their foot of the gas when they were punished dearly through a well worked move that started with Liam Gavaghan the London captain who is one of the seven homegrown players on the starting 15 who passed to another homegrown player in the form of Killian Butler, received it back and shot low past the Carlow shot stopper Robbie Molloy. Following this 2 points a piece left the score reading 1-2 to 6 points in favour of the Carlow men after 18 minutes played and it seemed as if London were going to drag themselves back into the game until they effectively shot themselves in the foot losing the ball in front of goals giving Eoghan Ruth the opportunity to blast home from close range a chance which he took without a second thought. With 27 minutes gone in the first half it was again looking like Carlow were going to pull away and extend their 5-point lead but credit to the home team as they exploited a concentration lapse in the Carlow defence and Mark Gottsche’s ball over the top found an unmarked Liam Gavaghan who was unceremoniously hauled down inside the penalty area as he attempted to put the ball beyond the Carlow keeper. This was however only a minor inconvenience for London as Eoin Murray confidently disposed off the penalty sending the keeper the wrong way and leaving only 2 points between the teams. Not that they were to know it but this was the closest London were to get to overhauling Carlow’s lead and the teams went in at half time with the scores reading 2-4 to 1-11 in favour of the visitors.
After the restart the scores dried up and Carlow put on a largely professional performance killing the pace of the game and controlling the tempo in order to maintain their lead and frustrate the home side. This was largely the story of the second half although Killian Butler did have one guilt edged chance for the London side but he failed to bag a third goal for his team and in the end Carlow picked off a tiring London side when substitute Jordan Morrissey was on the end of a slick passing move to finish the ball to the back of the London net putting the game to bed. London amassed just 5 points in the second half playing with a stiff breeze and ended up the wrong side of a 2-14 to 2-9 score line. This was an encouraging performance for London who have plenty to build on leading into next week’s fixture which also takes place in McGovern Park Ruislip against a Wicklow side who drew with Waterford in a low scoring affair in their opening game in the National Football League.