The Garden boys set to mow down cup rivals

WICKLOW captain Patrick O’keane feels that they can really go for the Tailteann Cup after their encouraging form in the Leinster Championship.

Wicklow sent Division Three winners Westmeath packing in the first round before pushing Kildare all the way the following Sunday, only losing the quarter-final by a point at the death.

The upturn came as something of a surprise after a difficult League campaign as they dropped to Division Four with just one win from seven games.

But the Kildare game still felt like an opportunity missed.

O’keane (above) said: “Yeah, we definitely feel like that and I suppose hindsight is a brilliant thing, we were watching back the game and we went through stuff and there were different things that we picked up and said. ‘We probably should have done this’ but hindsight is a brilliant thing.

“We probably had a few missed opportunities, in hindsight we were a man up and we probably should have pushed up on their kick-outs a little bit more.

“It was a bit of a lost opportunity because it would have been nice to play here in Croke Park against Louth in a Leinster semi-final, I don’t know when Wicklow were last even in one so it was unfortunate. The point at the end was a bit of a killer too but that’s the nature of the GAA.”

But, having beaten Westmeath, Tailteann Cup winners in 2022 and bound for Division Two next year, Wicklow feel that they can contend strongly for the competition.

“It’s definitely added a bit of belief that we’re well capable of competing in this competition.

“We were disappointed last year with how we went, we had Carlow in the first round and we’d only played them a few weeks previous in the first round of Leinster and we beat them, we thought we should have probably beaten them again and we lost and then we lost to Longford.

“That was the end of our Tailteann Cup then because the last game against Limerick meant nothing even though we won. The aim is to improve on last year.

“And definitely seeing the likes of Westmeath, who have won it, we’re more than capable of competing in this competition.”