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London still have crucial extra edge on Midlanders
By david thorpe
 The
gap is narrowing but on Saturday London were superior, defeating Warwickshire
in the under-17 British Championship final at Ruislip.
The early stages of the match looked like London would dominate leading
by 0-7 to 0-0 after 13 minutes with the pick of their points coming courtesy
of Ciaran Walsh and Aaron Somers.
The Warwickshire lads looked nervous in the opening quarter and their
confidence can’t have been helped by seeing the London lads rack-up
a huge score.
But the self-belief began to surge through the boys in red on 19 minutes
when Caolin Ryan took advantage of some sloppy London defending to fire
into the net.
Suddenly the Warwickshire lads were first to every ball, their shots carried
more power and their passes found their men.
A pair of frees from Seanie Taggart reduced London’s lead to just
two points. But that was as good as it got for Warwickshire. London’s
excellent full-forward Jerome Lawson hit a close-range point on 26 minutes
and followed that up by finishing a flowing move to the net on 28 minutes
to leave the interval scores 1-9 to 1-2 in favour of the home side.
Warwickshire had much the better of the second-half but they missed far
too many chances to make a comeback plausible.
Points from their best player, Declan Harkin, helped to reduce their arrears
and Bernard Slevin’s fine goal from midfield meant that London suffered
an edgy final few minutes but in the end London were worthy winners.
There are many who have questioned the value of a game like this, but
in the brief history of this competition Warwickshire have progressed
each year, only a lack of self-belief held them back on Saturday.
The London lads will now travel to Boston to represent Britain in the
Intercontinental Cup. London won this competition last year, and with
this group of players they certainly look capable of retaining the title.
Teams:
Warwickshire: Tom Massey, Mike O’Sullivan, Ryan Corrigan, Micheal
McKenna, Daniel Walsh, James Ring, Anhony Tolan, Martin Slevin, Bernard
Slevin (1-0), Sean Taggart (0-3 3f), Declan Harkin (0-3), Caolin Ryan
(1-0), James Morgan, Richard Smith, Liam Donnelly. Sub: Matt Challinor
for Anrthony Tolan.
London: Kyle Hogan, Gerard Geraghty, James Minihan, Ricky Williamson,
Kevin McMadden, Aaron Somers (0-1), Ryan Scullion, Craig Mullen, Sean
Rahilly, Daniel Campbell (0-4), Liam Thomas, Ciaran Walsh (0-2), Ben Whitting
(0-1), Jerome Lawson (1-2), Aidan Lynam. Sub: Liam Holley for Ciaran Walsh,
Liam Gavaghan (0-1) for Sean Rahilly. |
