February 21st 2016.
A date that everybody involved in Carlow Hurling will never forget.
London 5-16
Carlow 1-11
People are still at a loss to explain how that result actually happened nor can they come up with a reason why.
But it happened.
Fast forward 12 months and London again come to Netwatch Cullen Park and that takes place this Sunday at 1pm in the third round of the National Hurling League.
Much has changed since that horror show, and to be fair to last years squad they did recover to defeat Antrim and Westmeath and reached the Division 2A Final.
This year under Colm Bonnar, Carlow have arguably their strongest panel for years.
The league campaign started with a narrow win over Westmeath, while last time out Carlow had to settle for a draw against Antrim and really and truly it should have been another victory, but lapses in concentration gifted the Saffrons with two goals.
London have not been as prominent this season and have only got one point from two games which came against Armagh in their last appearance.
They are not to be taken lightly though and last year they were outrageously priced underdogs against Carlow and actually weren’t far off making the League Final themselves.
Carlow look set to be without Richard Coady for this one after he was dismissed on a straight red against Antrim. Marty Kavanagh and James Doyle should return to the starting line up however after their exploits for I.T Carlow and this will really boost the side.
Carlow Senior hurling manager Colm Bonnar says the progress of the newcomers during the League campaign proves the strength in depth that exists.
Speaking to KCLR ahead of Sunday’s clash at home to London, Colm says they are in a healthy position.
“We had three new players starting off against Antrim that didn’t start against Westmeath and we will be having a couple of more changes again and it just shows the strength of our team that we can do that and we had the likes of Marty(Kavanagh) and James Doyle who were playing with their Colleges last weekend.
“That just shows the strength that we have and play a good brand of hurling knowing that we have players like that sitting on the sideline able to come on and finish the game off us so we are in a healthy position, but you are only as good as your next game, and our next game is against London and we need to make sure we are totally focused on getting a result there.”
I think it’s safe to say that last years demons have been exorcised and I am going with Carlow in this one.
Verdict: Carlow
We have Live Coverage of the game on Sunday from 1pm on our Carlow Frequency and online with thanks to Rea’s Department Store at Fairgreen, Bagenalstown, Co.Carlow
