No win, no draw, no point!
CARLOW 3-14
LONDON 0-6
 By LEO
McGOUGH
The inevitable happened on Sunday in Dr. Cullen Park as London slumped
to their seventh consecutive defeat in Division 2A of the National Football
League to Carlow.
A crowd of barely 200 people bothered to attend the ‘wooden spoon’
clash and at the end will probably have decided it would have made more
sense to stay at home.
The 17-point victory for the home side was their largest winning margin
in eleven years and made many wonder just why the Exiles are in the Senior
Football league at all. Amazingly, London defeated Carlow here two years
ago by 1-10 to 0-12 but on Sunday their second-half performance was spectacularly
poor ensuring Noel Dunning’s side finished in the dreaded bottom
of the table position. The Exiles have conceded a total of 11-104 in just
seven games.
The throw in for the clash was delayed for 15 minutes in line with the
nationwide GPA protest. The late start seemed to favour London though
as the visitors capitalised on some atrocious play by the home side in
the opening half-hour.
Pat Quirke who finished the day with three points got off the mark quickly
as London settled into their stride. With half-an-hour gone the Exiles
held a surprise 0-3 to 0-2 lead andthe away side must have had visions
of replicating the victory of two years ago. As time continued to ebb
away in a woeful first-half of football.
An over-fussy referee in Westmeath’s Sean O’ Carroll didn’t
help London’s cause though and after a late first-half brace of
points from Carlow’s John Fitzgerald the home side entered their
dressing room with a one point lead at half time, 0-4 to 0-3. While the
football wasn’t pretty, Noel Dunning will have been happy with how
his side battled in the first half disrupting Carlow advances and fighting
for every ball.
However, if he was happy with the first half performance he must have
been astonished by his side’s complete and utter collapse after
the break.
Murphy’s law kicked in for London as everything that could go
wrong duly did. After 13 minutes of the second half London’s no.23
Declan Meehan was sent to the line after picking up a second yellow card.
Despite the best efforts of captain Paddy McConigley, Johnny Niblock and
Jacko Murphy who slotted over the score of the day London could not stem
the multi-coloured Carlow tide conceding a massive 3-9 in the second-half.
The GAA have confirmed that London will remain in Division 2A next year
ensuring another impossible year for the London management team. And with
Mayo, table toppers in Division 1A due to visit Ruislip for the Connacht
Championship encounter in the summer supporters of London will fear an
embarrassing whitewash lies ahead for the weakest side in this year’s
National League.
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