Wicklow defeated Carlow in their Leinster senior football championship preliminary round clash yesterday.
A strong second-half performance elevated @wicklowgaa to a convincing @gaaleinster SFC victory, securing a quarter-final clash with Kildare. Catch up on the highlights from the game with GAANOW! pic.twitter.com/8fGrdwRqbJ
— The GAA (@officialgaa) April 12, 2023
A Malachy Stone goal on stroke of half-time sent the Carlow footballers into the dressing room trailing for the first time in the game. Wicklow grew into the second half, with the barrow sider struggling to get a score on the board with the game finishing 2-12 to 20 points
Speaking after the game manager Niall Carew said ultimately the buck stops with him when it comes to poor results;
“It is results-driven, that is the bottom line, that is the game and I take full responsibility for where we are at. Still, we are a very inexperienced team, you take Moran and Foley out of it and these lads are quite young. That is not an excuse either but at the same time we need that experience.”
“I think the Tailteann Cup is going to be good for us, I believe when the ground is firmer that we will be a different team. Tactically we will have to change things up as well because we are just not getting enough scores.”
For Carlow fans, the draw for this year’s Tailteann Cup looks set to take on Monday, May 1st with the team expected to enter the competition on the weekend of May 13/14th.
Football fans will have to wait until the semi-finals of the Leinster senior championship have passed before the draw is made, Carlow is set to take part thanks to their defeat to Wicklow over the Easter bank holiday weekend. Carlow is now ranked 30th out of 32 county teams at the senior level, ahead of only Waterford and London.
It’s a round-robin format this year with Carlow guaranteed a minimum of one home game, one away game, and one game at a neutral venue. This year’s final has been confirmed for the weekend of July 15/16.
Listen back to the full interview below on Scoreline Extra: