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Exiles rue chances

GAA NFL Div 4 Antrim 3-19 London 0-04 London head to Wicklow this Sunday looking to rebuild their confidence after suffering an emphatic 24 point defeat to Antrim at Casement Park last Saturday. By Damian Dolan - 26/03/09

The Exiles suffered their third defeat of the National League campaign but while the margin of the defeat stirs memories of last years league season, London will know that while Antrim were worthy winners had they brought their shooting boots to Casement Park it could have been a much closer run thing.

“They were the best team we’ve played in the group so far by a county mile,” said London manager Noel Dunning. “If they don’t get promoted they’ll have seriously shot themselves in the foot.

“That said we didn’t do anything to help ourselves, I think we had 12 wides in the first half and we had 18 or 19 wides in total. So from that aspect at least we were creating chances but not taking them. It’s definitely something we’re going to have to work on.

“I thought we competed well for large stages of the first half, we were causing them problems, but we couldn’t put the ball over the bar. I don’t think it would have been unfair to have been level at half-time, but at the same time we still hadn’t performed to our potential.

“The second half we were playing against the wind and we just collapsed like a deck of cards. There were too many people waiting for things to happen rather than making them happen.

From the moment Tomas McCan fired over inside the opening minute, Antrim were on course to make it win number five and leapfrog Sligo at the top of the Division 4 table, if only by points difference.

For more on this story, see this weeks edition of The Irish World