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It will be a tough journey for London warns Dunning
By Tony Tighe
Ahead of London’s campaign opener with Offaly, we caught up with
manager Noel Dunning.
Offaly have had the O’Byrne Cup to help regain their match sharpness
as they look to bounce back from dropping into football’s bottom
tier.
It will be a tough ask for Dunning’s side to pull off a shock.
“Unfortunately we don’t have the luxury of the O’Byrne
Cup,” he said. “It’s going to be a baptism of fire for
us on Sunday. Things are going well but we’d be well behind Offaly
in terms of our preparations. We’ve only done six training sessions
so far and haven’t even got our full complement of players yet.
It’s tough when you don’t have the level of preparation that
teams have at home.”
Tir Chonaill Gaels’ club Championship hopes were ended by Crossmaglen
Rangers last Sunday, yet Dunning is unsure how many of their players will
be available to him, with injuries and fatigue bound to play their part.
“I haven’t spoken to the Gaels players yet,” he said.
“Obviously I want to try and give them some time to get over the
disappointment of Sunday’s defeat before I approach them. And of
course there’s a strong possibility that some will be carrying a
few knocks and niggles, so I don’t really know who I’ll have
available.
“I don’t know what their frame of mind will be like. It was
very disappointing for them to lose a game like that. I know what it feels
like and I know it can be hard to pick yourself up afterwards. They have
been training since last November so they may want to have a bit of a
break but I’m hoping that they’ll play in our games and perhaps
take a few training sessions off here and there.”
London defeated Cork side Castlehaven in a challenge match last Saturday
but Dunning admits it’s unlikely it will make much difference come
Sunday.
“We’re always playing catch-up until the middle stages of
the League. We’re throwing guys in at the deep end and they’re
only really finding out about themselves in the opening games. Our second
match is against Carlow which will be a tough game for us as well as it’s
a bit early in our development. We’re looking forward to it at the
same time.
“Hopefully in the next four to six weeks we’ll get things
together and get on an even keel with the other teams. I’d hope
we have a far more successful League than we’ve had in the last
few campaigns. We’re punching at our own weight now, rather than
above it. Once the team starts to come together, we should be OK.” |
