Allianz Football League Division Four: Derry v London (tomorrow, 12.30pm, Owenbeg)
THE juxtaposition of London and Derry has caused enough strife in the Oak Leaf county down the years, but you can’t imagine tomorrow’s football game creating much of a problem for the locals.
The Exiles travel over at what their manager Ciaran Deely described earlier this week as the “start of a new cycle”, even in the shelf-life of a county that traditionally sees widespread change on an annual basis.
They finished fourth last year and came close to accruing their best ever points tally in the National League, but in last weekend’s opener against Limerick they had seven debutants.
Gone from last year are Ciaran Dunne, Eoin Murray, Colin Dunne, Michael Murphy and Patrick Begley, as well as home-grown duo Tom Waters and Adrian Moyles.
They’ve also lost Tír Chonaill Gaels sharp-shooter Ryan Elliott for the season to injury, and they lost another key forward for this weekend when former Monaghan under-21 Fearghal McMahon pulled his hamstring last week.
Having had challenge games against a Dublin development squad and Gaoth Dobhair, it was an unusually busy pre-season for London. They will aim for another high-quality challenge game between league and championship but Deely is steeling his team to prepare for the closest to a high-level challenge they might get before Kevin Walsh’s side head to Ruislip in May.
“Talent-wise, tradition-wise and everything else, Derry are far too good to be in Division Four, like Laois were last year,” said Deely.
“They’ll be dynamic, fit, strong, they’ll be good footballers. They’ve a few Slaughtneil players, lads who are used to playing at a very, very high level, so for us it’s perfect preparation.
“We’re really looking forward to the weekend. If things don’t go well for us, we’ll bank the experience and improve. If things do go well, then it’s a great boost for our confidence going into the rest of the league.”
If anything highlights the step-up for some of his team, Aidan McGarvey had come straight out of Tír Chonaill Gaels’ junior team and into the number six jersey last week.
They are facing an Oak Leaf team that took two points from Corrigan Park, but didn’t receive the jag to their confidence that they would have liked.
It needed a self-made Padraig Cassidy winner in the last minute of normal time to get them out the gate, but there’s a sense that it will be the toughest test Damian McErlain’s side get, certainly until they host Leitrim and Wexford in their final two outings.
McErlain may well rotate his goalkeeper given he has three options and they’re all at the audition stage.
Sean Francis Quinn, Eoghan Concannon and Eamon McGill were all league debutants last weekend all three stood out in defence.
Ballinderry defender Gareth McKinless is no longer part of the panel, but Michael McEvoy had a big impact when he came in off the bench, and Jack Doherty gave them fresh legs too.
It’s unlikely that too much will change for the game – which is currently set for Owenbeg but may yet be moved to Celtic Park if the blanket of snow that fell on Dungiven yesterday doesn’t clear properly.
The one worry is Emmett Bradley, who played last weekend but the fact that he didn’t take the left-footed frees suggested his hamstring injury still hadn’t quite healed up.
Shane McGuigan kicked ten points for St Mary’s in their Sigerson Cup win over IT Tralee during the week but was kept very quiet last weekend by Ricky Johnston, with his only score a goal from a penalty.
His university team-mate Niall Toner could come into contention to start in beside him if Derry decide to go on the offensive.
Especially given that London operated with a full-time sweeper last week, Derry will still be able to keep a spare man among their six backs and perhaps push an extra forward in.
There ought to be a fair degree of comfort in it for the home side.
