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London’s late show breaks Herts’ gutsy resistance  A
STRONG second-half showing from defending champions London saw them overpower
a plucky Hertfordshire side in a blustery Oxhey Park on Saturday.
Despite being level at the interval London availed of the strong breeze
in the second period to pull away from the home side who relied heavily
on the shooting ability of tireless Pierce McGlynn.
Wing-forward McGlynn was superb throughout, cracking over six points from
some impossible angles but at times isolated himself from his teammates
by taking too much out of the ball.
Looking back Hertfordshire will rue a shaky start to the match in which
they allowed London to build a healthy lead.
Half-back Ryan Scullion opened the scoring after only 30 seconds quickly
followed by points from Sean Rahilly and Ben Whittins. Herts responded
with a free from Gary Connolly but were struggling to get a stranglehold
in midfield where they constantly came off second best to the partnership
of Liam Thomas and James Minihan.
Three quick scores followed to give London a healthy lead but Herts had
finally began to awake from their slumber and fired five unanswered points
to claw their way back into proceedings. An injury-time point from McGlynn
saw Herts go into the break on level terms — 0-7 to 0-7 the score.
However, within 14 seconds of the restart Herts were behind again. Powerful
full-forward Jerome Lawson brushed aside his marker before slotting the
ball under Jordan Toomey for the only goal of the game.
From there on in it was plain sailing for London with captain Daniel Campbell
and Shane Waters in ruthless form. Herts struggled to cope with the stiff
breeze — their kick-outs not travelling much distance — with
the short option proving to be more of a hindrance than a solution.
Lawson was denied a second goal late on when he was penalised for a square
ball after fisting home but with the game already over as a contest there
was no strong protestations from the away side.
London now travel to Philadelphia next summer to defend their title and
after this showing will be confident of still having the cup on their
return flight home.
London: Kyle Hogan; Ricky Williamson, Craig Mullin, Gerard Geraghty; Kevin
McFadden, Ronan McGree, Ryan Scullion (0-1); Liam Thomas (0-1), James
Minihan; Aiden Lynam, Sean Rahilly (0-3, 2f), Daniel Campbell (0-4); Ben
Whittins (0-2), Jerome Lawson (1-0), Shane Waters (0-3).
Hertfordshire: Jordan Toomey; Luke Grant, Tom Carter, Kane O’Shea;
Ralph Jones, Joe Gallagher, Philip Ryan; Tom Ryan, David Ross; Matthew
Coffey, Gary Connolly (0-1f), Pierce McGlynn (0-6, 2f); Daniel Lavin,
Diarmuid Cleary, Eoin Casey. Subs: Joseph Burns; Aiden Cullinane (0-1);
Niall Gibbons; Lewis Toomey (0-1); Ciaran O’Brien. |
