Updated: May 31st, 2025
Christy Ring: Derry hurlers left frustrated by referee as London claim Christy Ring Cup
Game recap
From Michael Wilson (Derry Journal) Photographs George Sweeney (Derry Journal)
Derry 1-24, London 1-27
Another Christy Ring final and yet more Croke Park heartbreak for Derry hurlers who lost out to London in a controversial decider in Dublin on Saturday evening.
For the third time in three years – a fourth in the last five – Derry had to watch another team climb the steps of the Hogan Stand after falling short in a final in which referee Padraig Dunne played far too big a role. The Laois referee failed to send off London midfielder Paul Kennedy after the midfielder pushed his head into Thomas Brady’s face in the opening half while a series of soft frees which went the Exiles’ way to continually break up play and visibly frustrate Johnny McGarvey and his players throughout the 70 odd minutes.
Indeed Derry’s frustrations boiled over after the whistle when James Friel was red carded for confronting the official and making his feelings clear. Friel’s frustration was totally understandable.
The Oak Leafers would be the first to admit they weren’t at their best in headquarters. Ahead only twice in the match – at 1-08 to 1-07 in first half and 1-20 to 1-19 in the second – it always felt as if Derry were chasing a game just out of reach, one in which an over used whistle thwarted any real chance of Derry gaining the momentum needed to take a grip.
After trailing by three at the break and four down with four minutes left, Derry brought it back to the minimum with one minute remaining before late scores from London’s best player, David Devine, took their lead out to three in injury time.
Derry still refused to accept their fate, a jersey pull on Eamon Conway seeing Cormac O’Doherty’s close range free blocked on the line by any one of 8 London defenders for a ’65’ that was dropped in and broken down. Yet, with players from both sides scrambling for the loose ball only yards from the London goal, the full-time whistle sounded.
It summed up the afternoon: a second Christy Ring title for London but more championship heartbreak for Derry.
It was the Exiles who settled quickest in almost perfect conditions, Conor McCormack firing them ahead inside 40 seconds of a half which London should’ve been down to 14 after Kennedy’s tussle with Brady after the Derry player won a 19th minute free.
But if London were lucky to have 15 men on the field, they deserved their 1-15 to 1-12 half-time lead which owed much to an excellent half from corner forward and free-taker Devine whose shooting accounted for 1-6 (5f).
Christy McNaughton got Derry on to the scoreboard with two minutes gone but they were still lagging slightly in London’s slipstream with neither side passing up many chances, London hitting their first half 1-15 from just 18 shots and Derry grabbing their 1-12 from 15.
But London’s direct game was providing plenty of problems for the Oak Leafers who seemed to have found their feet when points from Cormac O’Doherty (f), Richie Mullan, Brady and Cahal Murray, the latter following a superb high fetch, brought them level for the first of four times in the opening half at five points apiece.
London’s response was a superb Sean Glynn run which picked out Devine at the back post to fire first time to the net with 12 minutes gone, but anything London could do Derry could do better as John Mullan teed up Thomas Brady for as good a goal as you will see in Croke Park this summer.
The tit-for-tat scoring continued until Glynn, Kennedy and Devine opened up a 1-13 to 1-09 lead as we closed in on half-time. Two O’Doherty frees kept Derry in touch and the Oak Leafers wouldn’t have been been overly concerned to trail by three at the break.
The second half followed a similar pattern to the first, Derry chipping away at London’s lead without ever taking charge of the game. Derry’s best scoring run of the game – four unanswered points from Eamon Conway, O’Doherty, McNaughton and another huge effort from O’Doherty – took them into the lead for the first time at 1-20 to 1-19 with 53 minutes on the clock but not for the first time, a Devine free arrived just when London needed it.
The Exiles hit four unanswered scores of their own in response and it proved the winning of the game, Derry unable to reel them in a second and third time despite a gallant efforts. The sound of the full-time whistle as the sliotar bounced around dangerously close to the London posts with Derry needing a goal summed things up. So near, yet it feels so far.
This will be a hard one to take.
Teams and scorers
Derry scorers: Cormac O’Doherty (0-9, 8f), Christy McNaughton (0-3), Richie Mullan (0-2), Thomas Brady (1-1), Cahal Murray (0-1), Shea Cassidy (0-1), Ruairi O Mianain (0-2), Eamon Conway (0-3), Ryan McGill (0-1).
London scorers: David Devine (1-11, 8f), Conor McCormack (0-1), Tom Millerick (0-1), Sean Glynn (0-2), Enda Egan (0-5, 4f, 1 ’65’), Conor O’Carroll (0-2), Dylan Dawson (0-3), Paul Kennedy (0-1), Jack Morrissey (0-1).
Derry: Sean Kelly, Sean Cassidy, Mary Craig, Patrick Turner, Ruairi O’Mianain, Richie Mullan, James Friel, Meehaul McGrath, Eamon Conway, Thomas Brady, John Mullan, Cormac O’Doherty, Cahal Murray, Christy McNaughton, Shea Cassidy. (Subs) Deaghlan Foley for Shea Cassidy, 47mins; Paddy Kelly for J Friel, 55mins; Ryan McGill for T Brady, 55mins; Gerald Bradley for M McGrath, 60mins; Callum O’Kane for R Mullan, 67mins.
London: Mark Kilgannon, Niall Fitzgerald, Conor Byrne, Stephen Whelan, Tom Millerick, Enda Egan, Padriag Muldoon, Adam Cunney, Paul Kennedy, Jack Morrissey, Sean Glynn, Dylan Dawson, Conor McCormack, Conor O’Carroll, David Devine. (Subs) Niall Geoghegan for N Fitzgerald, 36mins; Rory Lodge for P Kennedy, 43mins; Owen Sheil for C McCormack, 55mins; Tom Hanifin for A Cunney, 69mins; Dannacha Leahy for D Dawson, 72mins.
Referee: Padraig Dunne (Laois)
Match reaction
A dejected Derry Senior Hurling manager Johnny McGarvey gave his reaction to Michael Wilson (Derry Journal) and Michael McMullan (Gaelic Life) after the final whistle.