Cahir Healy: 'It shows that if you do put in enough something will come back eventually if you keep going'
FIRST WIN IN ELEVEN YEARS: The 2024 Tailteann Cup kicked off with the biggest shock in the short history of this new championship on Saturday afternoon, as London travelled to Tullamore and completely over-ran the home side to record their first championship win in 11 years. Pic: ©INPHO/Ben Brady
The 2024 Tailteann Cup kicked off with the biggest shock in the short history of this new championship on Saturday afternoon, as London travelled to Tullamore and completely over-ran the home side to record their first championship win in 11 years.
For the first 30 minutes, Offaly were poor, but stayed in contention, despite some excellent scores from Ciaran Diver for the visitors. 0-8 to 0-6 behind with wind advantage to come, it seemed as if the Faithful men would still find a way home against the side that they beat by nine points in this very fixture a year ago.
A ‘goal’ from Keith O’Neill was ruled out for overcarrying while a black card for defender David Dempsey didn’t help, but instead of regrouping and finding more in the second half, Offaly played second fiddle as London ran riot.
Both teams traded points until the 51st minute when a mix up in the Offaly defence saw a loopy ball from Rafter eventually knocked into the net by the fist of Stephen Dornan.
A rush of Offaly subs did nothing to change the game’s momentum as London drove at Offaly with incredible diligence and drive from key middlemen McLoughlin, Dornan and Daniel Clarke. Clarke operated particularly well as London’s forward linchpin, but the star man was Diver, who clinched the result with his goal in the 66th minute.
“We had maybe five or six weeks between this and the Galway game, so you have time to flush that embarrassment or disaster down the toilet” said former Laois star Cahir Healy, who came off the bench to feature for the last 10 minutes.
“It’s been like that as long as I’ve been involved with London because we don’t have a pitch to train on during the Spring. We have no lights for a Gaelic pitch so once the clock changes we can get out on a full football pitch and do a bit more.
“We got off to a great start, I just hope that that one win isn’t enough. Whether we win next week or not, I hope we play like we want to win” he said.
“For those English-born lads and people who are trying to bring London GAA along and putting in hours at underage it’s not easy, so it’s a great victory for those. It shows that if you do put in enough something will come back eventually if you keep going”.
: C Diver 1-5 (0-3f), S Dornan 1-1, S Rafter 0-4, D Clarke, R Rafferty and J Obahor 0-2 each, M Carroll, A McLoughlin, E Walsh and Liam Gallagher (0-1f) 0-1 each.
: D Hyland 0-4 (0-2f), J Bryant (0-1f) and Nigel Dunne (0-1f) 0-2 each, C Donoghue, P Cunningham, E Carroll (0-1 mark), and I Duffy (0-1 ’45) 0-1 each.
A Walsh; E Walsh, D Rooney, C McKeon; O Kerr, S Rafter, A McLoughlin; S Dornan, L Gallagher; M Carroll, D Clarke, C Diver; J Obahor, R Rafferty, F Eastwood.
: M Miller fo/r Kerr (58), C Healy for McLoughlin (60), T Barry for C McKeon (64), DJ O’Flaherty for Rafter (64) and J McGill for Rafferty (70+1).
: I Duffy; L Pearson, D Dempsey, J Furlong; C Egan, R Egan, P Cunningham; E Carroll, C Donoghue; D Hyland, C Flynn, J Hayes; C Farrell, K O’Neill, J Bryant.
: J O’Brien for R Egan (43), N Dunne for Flynn (45), R McNamee for Farrell (48), N Poland for Donoghue and D Molloy for Dempsey (66).
: Derek O’Mahony (Tipperary)
