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Coggins is up for Antrim challenge

18 June 2012

London football manager Paul Coggins ©INPHO/James Crombie
London scored a memorable All-Ireland SFC qualifier victory over Fermanagh 12 months ago and they will be looking to repeat the trick when they entertain Antrim this time around.

The Exiles - who celebrated a first championship victory in 34 years at Fermanagh's expense at the same stage last year - were handed a home draw against the Saffrons in this morning's draw.

"It will be a totally different situation from last year," London manager Paul Coggins told hoganstand.com. "The only difference this year is that we have done it before and we know that we can do it."

Coggins is upbeat about his team's chances after they ran Leitrim to one point (1-8 to 0-12) in the Connacht SFC at the beginning of June.

"We're looking forward to the game. It didn't matter who we got because there was a lot of good teams in the draw.

"Antrim are a good side, we've played them quite a few times over the years but, at the moment, we're just concentrating on ourselves. Things have been going well since the Leitrim defeat, we put in a big performance that day and we'll be hoping for an even bigger performance on Saturday week."

The Roscommon native was proud of his players' effort against Leitrim at Ruislip.

"It's always disappointing when you lose but the lads put in a massive effort and you have to look at the positives.

"I think myself if we had have been playing Galway or Mayo people would have given us a bit more credit but Leitrim are a very good team who are capable of beating any team in Connacht.

"They proved that last year when they beat Sligo and Sligo are now in the Connacht final having beaten Galway this year."

Back to the subject of Antrim: "It's going to be a challenge for our lads but they are going well.

"We've improved throughout the league and the championship and we have shown that we are no pushovers. The players, management and backroom team will leave no stone unturned in our preparations and we'll have no regrets."