Wicklow’s late surge sees them take knockout spot

A strong finish at Parnell Park did the trick for Oisin McConville’s Wicklow whose first win of the Tailteann Cup campaign has secured their place in the knock-out stages.

Trailing by a point with five minutes to go, but a man up following Jamie Clarke’s dismissal for Carlow, the Garden County dug deep to mine out an impressive win over their neighbours and rivals.

Wicklow reeled off the last four scores of the game with substitute Christopher O’Brien and Padraig O’Toole each hitting a brace of points.

Free-taker Kevin Quinn top scored for Wicklow with six points and helped them to lock down third position in the table and a place in tomorrow evening’s preliminary quarter-final draw.

What manager McConville and his crew know for certain is that they’ll be away from home next weekend.

For Carlow, their campaign is over after taking just a single point from their three Group 3 games.

They were in this one right until the finish and an exciting second-half swung back and forth in scoring terms but the Clarke red card in the 44th minute probably cost them.

Wicklow were buoyed by the presence of Mark Jackson in goals for the second game running following his high profile attempts at landing an NFL kicker contract.

The Baltinglass man missed their exciting Leinster championship campaign, which yielded a win over Westmeath and a near miss against Kildare, but returned for their narrow Tailteann Cup loss to Laois and lined out again this time.

He struck Wicklow’s opening score from a ninth minute free out on the right wing and, operating as a sweeper ‘keeper, delivered a sumptuous diagonal pass down into the left corner-forward position that led to a 31st minute free which Quinn converted.

But Carlow did their best to limit Jackson’s influence on the game by backing off and conceding the Wicklow kick-out until the closing minutes.

It was a sensible move because Wicklow had the wind in the first-half and Jackson has the length and accuracy to put any defence on the backfoot with his giant kicks beyond midfield.

He did go long once in an attempt to catch Carlow out but it led to nothing and he was restricted otherwise to short tap outs which gave Carlow time to reset their defence.

With so much on the line, caution was the order of the day and Carlow edged a low-scoring first-half, 0-06 to 0-05.

Seven wides undermined Wicklow’s efforts and just two of their first-half points, from Quinn and Patrick O’Keane, came from open play.

It was a similar story for Carlow who kicked half of their first-half points from frees. Ross Dunphy, a Tailteann Cup All-Star in 2023, did brilliantly along the right endline to conjure a Carlow point in the 21st minute and Aaron Amond then boomed an eye-catching score from distance off the outside of his boot.

Liam Gavin had two decent goal chances for Carlow, in the seventh and 23rd minutes, but couldn’t convert either, his first shot saved by the goalkeeper and his second attempt a butchered fisted effort.

The strong sense was that both teams had plenty more to offer and the game finally burst into life after the restart.

Wicklow’s aggressive high press yielded three points in a row from veteran Dean Healy, Quinn and Mark Kenny.

But no sooner had they taken a two-point lead than Carlow slammed a 41st minute goal at the other end.

It was the perfect riposte from the Barrowsiders, playing their 10th ever Tailteann Cup game, as they worked a move down the right which ended in a ball across to Eric Molloy who slammed to the net.

But their joy was short lived as defender Clarke was dismissed just three minutes later. It came from an incident in the course of an O’Toole point for Wicklow which left team captain O’Keane on the floor and requiring treatment for a facial injury.

Two further Quinn points from frees reopened a two-point advantage for Wicklow but Carlow, even with 14 men, weren’t about to give this one up.

They briefly took the lead again at 1-09 to 0-11 in the 63rd minute but when the need was greatest it was Wicklow that showed their superior resolve, reeling off those last four points of the game.

Wicklow: Mark Jackson (0-01, 0-01f); Tom Moran, Malachy Stone, Patrick O’Keane (0-01); Darragh Fee, Eoin Murtagh, Matt Nolan; Craig Maguire, Jack Kirwan; Mark Kenny (0-01), Dean Healy (0-01), Padraig O’Toole (0-03); John Paul Nolan, Kevin Quinn (0-06, 0-04f), Eoin Darcy.

Subs: Cillian McDonald for O’Keane 44-47 blood, Gavin Fogarty for Kenny 53, Christopher O’Brien (0-02) for Nolan 56, Oisin McGraynor for Darcy 59, McDonald for Fee 63, Jonathan Carlin for Maguire 66.

Carlow: Johnny Furey; Colin Byrne, Mark Furey, Eric Molloy (1-00); Mikey Bambrick (0-01), Jamie Clarke, Colm Hulton; Conor Doyle (0-01, 0-01 45), Ross Dunphy (0-01); Aaron Amond (0-01), Paddy McDonnell, Conor Crowley (0-01); Liam Gavin, Darragh Foley (0-03, 0-02f), Cormac Lomax (0-01).

Subs: Niall Hickey for Gavin 48, Ciaran Moran for Hulton 58, John Phiri for Lomax 63, John Murphy for M Furey 63, Shane Buggy for Molloy 69.

Referee: Seamus Mulhare (Laois).