London Under 18 Development Squad Blitz in Roscommon

London Under 18 Development Squad Blitz in Roscommon

After 8 weeks of intense training the London Under 18 Development Squad travelled to Connacht to participate in the National Gaelic Football Blitz day. The boys arrived in Dublin on Thursday morning and went straight to a tour around Croke Park, which was hoped would provide some inspiration. Following this the squad went to Strokestown, County Roscommon where we were met by the Willie Hegarty, the Games Manager for Roscommon. Willie had organised to couple of days of coaching with some of Roscommon's finest coaches. The boys thoroughly enjoyed the sessions.

Saturday was blitz day in Longford Slashers ground. London would be up against Mayo and Longford. The first match was against Mayo and the boys got of to a flying start, Tom Waters and Liam McGrath were very strong in midfield, while Ayrton Tansiri, Rhys Lennon and Jack Ryan dominated attack. At half-time, with the help of a strong wind were two points up against a very strong Mayo team. The second half was a tough one for London as the they fought very hard against a strengthening wind. Oisin Patterson, the team captain, led by example from centre half back and was assisted with strong performances from Dominic Canney and Anthony Swain but unfortunately Mayo came out on top with a 2-10 to 2-6 victory. Although John O'Sullivan was very proud of the performance of the boys against a strong Mayo team but just wished his boys had taken more advantage of the strong wind in the first half.

After a tough opener against Mayo, London were now up against Longford on their home ground. The first half was very tight as neither team was giving away possession and taking every opportunity to score, for London there were strong performances from Oisin Patterson, Sean O'Sullivan, Anthony Swain and Ayrton Tansiri was tireless in attack as at half time it was a draw. London were unfortunate to pick up a few injuries along the way as James Glynn was forced to retire and birthday boy Jack Ryan had damaged a hamstring. But there were positives from these injuries as John O'Sullivan was inspired to bring on Hugo Lewis for the second half. As a target man in full forward Hugo caused problems for the Longford defence and within five minutes he was able to set up David Flaherty to score a goal. As the second half went on London got stronger and stronger with Oisin Patterson and Anthony Swain in defence, Tom Waters in midfield, Rhys Lennon and Ayrton in attack but it was Hugo Lewis who had the last laugh with a well taken goal as the match finished London 2-8 Longford 0-8. On his last trip with a London team, coach Ronan McCarthy could not praise the performance of the boys enough and see's no reason why a London team cannot play in the minor Connacht Championship and urges the London County Board to continue the good work they are doing in investing in trips to Ireland for future London senior footballers.