Exiles enter Saturday on back of best-ever league

London’s footballers welcome Mayo to McGovern Park, Ruislip, on the back of their best-ever National League campaign but knowing it could – and perhaps should – have delivered so much more.

The seven points Michael Maher’s side amassed bettered the six they recorded in 2022 and in 1993-94 – their debut season in the league.

History will also record that London finished Division 4 in sixth place. But those statistics won’t nearly begin to tell the full story.

Going into the final round of fixtures, the Exiles were still in the running for promotion. Unchartered territory for a London team. Third in the table, they needed to beat Antrim in Cargin, and hope that either Carlow or Wicklow slipped up. As it transpired, Longford overturned a 12-point deficit to stun the Garden County, with the winner coming deep into added-time.

Meanwhile, 14-man London were overturning a six-point deficit of their own, only to fall agonisingly short (0-18 to 1-14). Joe McGill, from Convoy in Co Donegal, top scored with 0-8, including a trio of two-point frees, while Williamstown native Nathan Feeney got the goal.

So near and yet so far from a first-ever league promotion and a return to Croke Park for the first time since 2013.

Leaving aside the events in Cargin, the Exiles will rue Tipperary’s last kick of the game levelling two-pointer and letting slip a 12-point lead against Leitrim. It’s not clutching at straws to say that London should have gone into the final round of the league on ten points – and with one foot in the final.

Having been held to a 0-21 apiece draw by Tipperary in Round 1, with 0-7 and 0-6 from McGill and Daniel Clarke (Naomh Colmcille, Donegal) respectively, Maher’s men responded by beating Longford for the first time.

Kristian Healy (St Enda’s, Antrim) top scored at Pearse Park with four points in a 0-19 to 2-8 win. Ciaran Diver and Shay Rafter scored 0-3 apiece.

Leitrim brought the Exiles back down to earth with Barry McNulty kicking six second half two-pointers (five from play) as the visitors prevailed by 2-19 to 1-20.

Joe McGill scored another nine points, all but one point from placed balls, with Moycullen man Michael O’Reilly getting the London goal.

The 16-point hammering subsequently dished out by Wicklow was something of an anomaly. Shay Rafter, whose Glenamoy father Pat also played for London, top scored with five points.

How the team responded to those two defeats would be more telling, and they began by beating Waterford at Ruislip by 3-16 to 2-13. McGill 0-5, O’Reilly 1-0, Diver 1-3, Rafter 0-3 and James Davis 1-3, including a two pointer, did the bulk of the damage.

That left Maher’s men needing to beat Division 4 leaders Carlow at Cullen Park, and then the Saffrons to have any chance of promotion. A tall order, but they achieved the first part with a thoroughly deserved 1-20 to 0-18 victory, having led Carlow from start to finish.

Liam Murphy (Annaghdown) came off the bench to score the crucial goal, while another Galway man, goalkeeper and vice-captain Andrew Walsh (Clarinbridge) made several stunning saves. including from a last-gasp penalty.

Ciaran Diver scored 0-5, Shay Rafter 0-4 (3f) and Joe McGill 0-4 (2f).

And then they so very nearly overcame the first-half red carding of Ciaran Diver to deliver the second part against Antrim – and secure what would have been a historic promotion.

Still a very good league campaign for London – but it was so very nearly a great one.

London’s year had begun with just their third-ever excursion into the Connacht GAA FBD League. After a side full of new faces was firmly put to the sword by Galway at Bekan, the Exiles could count themselves unlucky to be held to a 1-11 to 0-14 draw by Sligo.

Eamonn O’Hara and Dessie Sloyan’s side needed a last kick of the game Neil Murphy free to deny London what would have been just their second-ever victory in the FBD.

Shay Rafter’s 56th minute goal had put the Exiles into a 1-10 to 0-11 lead over the Yeatsmen. The Tara man top scored with 1-6 (0-3f) and that win sent London into the FBD League Plate final against Leitrim, with the Exiles coming out on top by 3-12 to 1-9.

McGill 1-2 (1’45), Rafter 1-3 (0-1f) and Charlestown native Conor O’Donoghue 1-1 led the way, with the win delivering the county its first piece of senior football silverware for 38 years.

The previous one came on October 30, 1988 when the Exiles beat Waterford, 2-8 to 1-6, at Ruislip to win the McGrath Cup – a senior Munster Council competition. It was also just the second-ever, British provincial titles aside from decades gone by.

London’s only other recent senior final appearance was, of course, the 2013 Connacht championship decider against Mayo. That was the last year London recorded a victory in Connacht – beating Sligo at Ruislip and then Leitrim in a replay at Dr Hyde Park. Their only other Connacht win came in 1977 against Leitrim in Carrick-on-Shannon.

The Exiles don’t need to go back that far – or even to 2013 – for their last championship victory, though. That came in 2024 when Maher’s side stunned Offaly in the Tailteann Cup. Former Donegal player Ciaran Diver top scored at O’Connor Park with 1-5 (3f) while Shay Rafter hit 0-4.

Only Liam Gallagher and Matt Moynihan (Spa, Kerry) remain from manager Michael Maher’s first game in charge – against Sligo in the opening round of the 2020 league. Maher was, however, part of Ciaran Deely’s management team in 2019, when Galway were lucky to escape Ruislip unscathed.

The pandemic soon brought London’s involvement to a halt, and it would be two years before they’d return. It makes London-born Maher one of the longest-serving inter-county football managers, alongside Galway’s Pádraic Joyce. Armagh’s Kieran McGeeney leads the way.

Liam Gallagher, Shay Rafter, Tighe Barry, Joshua Obahor, Aidan McLoughlin, Jack Power, Conor Redican and Darragh Griffin further strengthen the homegrown links.

New additions Conor O’Donohue (Charlestown Sarsfields), Stephen Henry (Swinford) and Ciaran Gaughan (Bonniconlon) ensure a Mayo presence in London ranks.

Mayo supporters won’t need reminding against whom London’s first FBD League victory came – against the Green and Red in January 2022 in Bekan.

Shay Rafter, on his senior London debut, scored 0-6 (3f), while Liam Gallagher – now the team’s captain – chipped in with two points to help the Exiles record their first-ever win over Mayo by 0-12 to 1-8.

Rafter’s dad, Pat, marked Galway’s Pádraic Joyce at Ruislip in 1999.

From the Cill Chomáin club, Pat would have captained London against his native Mayo the following year but for the foot and mouth outbreak.

Rafter also has links to Doohoma and Geesala on his mother’s side.

Andrew Walsh, Daire Rooney, Matt Moynihan, Aidan McLoughlan, Daniel Clarke, Joshua Obahor, Tighe Barry and Ciaran McKeon also remain from that famous day in January 2024 inside the Air Dome.

It’s not the first time Mayo have figured large in London’s story.

They were London’s first-ever opponents in Connacht in ’75 in Castlebar, and the Exiles’ first Connacht SFC opposition when the quarter-final fixture was switched to Ruislip in ’81.

And then there’s 2011. Two points up with four minutes to go. That’s how close Paul Coggins’ side were from pulling off arguably the greatest upset in GAA history against James Horan’s men.

Then two years later, that historic first Connacht final appearance during London’s sensational summer.

13 years on from that historic Castlebar day, London will again have absolutely nothing to lose against Mayo – and everything to gain.

Damian Dolan is Irish World sports editor.