Seasoned campaign Liam Gavigan was delighted with Londons opening campaign win over Carlow last weekend.
The pandemic had wreaked havoc on the squad over the two years, with just 13 players from the panel remaining for the upcoming league. Those older players and new ones managed to come back from a ten-point deficit against Niall Carew’s Carlow. The game ended Carlow 1-13 London 2-11, with Captain Gavigan highlighting a great second-half performance and some key substitutions, as the reason for the victory. Speaking to Scoreline he said ;
“It was a huge night, especially being out for two years with the pandemic. So to come back into the league campaign, we did not know what to expect, it is a new panel again.”
“Training has been going well the last couple of months. It took us about 20 minutes to get up to the speed of play. Carlow came out quick but once we did, we drove on in the second half and the lads that came off the bench made a huge difference.”
It was near ten years ago that they had that London run to Croke Park for that last round qualifier clash and they have massively improved over the last decade. With that improvement comes more English-born players coming into the squad. In 2018, London fielded a record six London-born starters in their championship line-up in their defeat to Sligo in the Connacht Senior Football Championship. This is something Gavigan believes London can keep producing for the good of the side ;
“Thankfully, I was made captain in 2017. Irish lads coming over, you do not know if they will be there for a year or two. It is key for London is brining in English born lads as they can be there for 10 years and you can build a team around that.”
London will play Waterford in Round 2 of the Allianz Football League Division 4 on Sunday, February 6th at 1pm in Ruislip.
