Carlow picked up a valuable two points as they defeated London in round 5 of the Allianz National Football League Division 4
After back-to-back defeats to Laois and Leitrim Carlow got the promotion ambitions back on track with a four-point victory in the National Football league from McGovern Park, Ruislip. The home side started brighter than their visitors but Carlow was soon on level terms by the 20th minute. A brace from Foley and a spectacular effort from Colm Hulton saw the Barrowsiders take a tidy four-point lead into the break.
On the resumption, Jordan Morrissey extended the lead even further which was added to with a Darragh Foley (free). Carlow have been trying a counterattack style game this year and they shored up the defense once they had their lead and went on the attack with they could to try and get whatever scores that they could.
Carlow’s Shane Clarke picked up a black card in the 55th minute and London went on the ascendancy thanks to multiple scores from James Gallagher. This reduced the gap to three points at one stage and thoughts came back to a year ago when the Exiles overturned a ten-point deficit to beat Carlow by a single point in Netwatch Cullen Park.
Niall Carew’s men whoever were not going to give this game up easily, Ciarán Cunningham was never really tested in the Carlow goal and late scores from Darragh Foley and Jordan Morrissey helped keep the London side at bay, and for Carlow to get back to winning ways. Final Score London 0-9, Carlow 0-13
Scorers – Carlow: D Foley 0-7 (1m, 4f); J Morrissey 0-3; R Dunphy 0-2; C Hulton 0-1.
London: J Gallagher 0-4 (1f); J McGill (1f); E Walsh 0-2 each; A McLoughlin 0-1.
“The win is great and for us missing four or five key players that would be first on your list coming to London with a full team where plenty of teams have been turned over, Leitrim had to get three goals to win by two points”.
“We learned a lot from last week, we made shocking mistakes bringing the ball into the tackle and even though we did it a couple of times, I felt we were in a way more in control this time and we worked on that all week”, Carew told KCLR after the game.
“I think Darragh O’Brien made a massive difference in terms of that experience up front holding onto the ball when it was needed, we overdid it at times as well but I thought it was a great performance. I thought Jordan Morrissey had probably his best game, he scored three points but he had real control and we need the likes of Jordan doing that going forward”.
Take a listen back to the full interview on our Scoreline Extra podcast at the link below
