| Bolger: London can rise to Mayo challenge
 A
month without a game and hampered by unavailable training pitches the
London hurlers haven’t had the best of preparations ahead of their
clash with Mayo this Sunday. Still manager Brendan Bolger believes his
side can move up a gear from their last-minute defeat to Kerry last month
though he admits it will be a formidable challenge.
He said: “The loss to Kerry was obviously hard to take but the lads
played very positive hurling and you must remember it was the first game
under the new management.”
Mayo are on the crest of a wave at the moment after they convincingly
defeated Kerry by 2-13 to
1-8 earlier this month and they sit second in the Division 2B table behind
Kildare.
Bolger expects the Connacht men to put up a huge test in Mayo on Sunday
saying: “They’ve a new manager this year and seem very well-organised
and motivated. To be honest I was surprised with the nature of their win
over Kerry and in truth we couldn’t be meeting them at a worse time.
In dual-star Keith Higgins they’ve a superb hurler and he’ll
be a danger man for them this weekend.”
Three of the London panel have had to withdraw their services on a temporary
basis for personal reasons including Ronan O’Connor who may have
earned himself a starting place in Sunday’s league game after scoring
a fine point when introduced in the clash against the Kingdom.
Bolger admits various unpreventable factors mean his side may not be as
sharp as usual on Sunday.
He said: “Because of the weather we haven’t been able to actually
play some hurling in training until last week. We’ve been doing
a lot of physical training instead. Also we have to keep our fingers crossed
that all of the Robert Emmetts players got through their All-Ireland final
unscathed.”
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