Leitrim facing an anxious wait over injured captain Emlyn Mulligan

Connacht secretary John Prenty has defended the decision to stage the provincial semi-final replay between Leitrim and London in Hyde Park rather than allow the exiles have a home venue after their draw in Carrick-on-Shannon.

“Every year London are the only team in the Connacht championship which is guaranteed its first match at home and allowed to keep all of the gate receipts. Against that, the situation has always been that they play their other matches over here, which has only happened once since 1977.”

A crowd of 7,900 turned out and a surprising number were supporting London.

“When they went two up it sounded as if half the crowd were from London,” said Prenty.

"There would have been just 700 or 800 tickets sold there but between relatives and people from the players' original clubs in Ireland I'd say they had support of about 1,500 to 2,000."

Leitrim are waiting anxiously on news of the calf injury to captain and leading forward Emlyn Mulligan who retired injured on Sunday after 15 minutes. Joint manager George Dugdale said last night "He's gone for a scan and we won't get the results until tomorrow (Tuesday) so we won't know whether it's a train or a tear. I'd say he's about 50-50."

Mulligan himself told the Leitrim Observer website yesterday that he was confident of playing.

Meanwhile Ian Burke of Galway's under-21 All-Ireland football winners was yesterday named the Cadbury Hero of the Future in recognition of his performances in the county's success. His team-mates Fiontán Ó Curraoin and Shane Walsh as well as Brian Hurley (Cork), Paul Cribbin (Kildare) and Jack Brady (Cavan) were also nominated.