Wicklow put the fear into Dublin before they eventually escape from Aughrim

Leinster SFC quarter-final: Wicklow 0-18 Dublin 2-21

A rare Dublin visit to the home ground of the Garden County, and the fear among some locals they would promptly set Aughrim alight never came to pass. Instead it was more campfire than wildfire, as Wicklow bravely covered that threat by giving every bit as good as they got.

Only the third championship meeting between the neighbouring counties in 35 years, Dublin won by 23 points last time out, in 2018. This time, before a packed-out Echelon Park, Wicklow trailed by just five points on the hour mark, and although Dublin finished the stronger and won by nine, their overall performance was marked by repeated slack play and overall lethargy.

Dublin did boast the best player in Con O’Callaghan, the new Dublin captain finishing with 1-7 – including a penalty converted on the rebound, and one of Dublin’s two two-pointers. Still, Wicklow had a near match in Dean Healy, their veteran captain arguably the most influential player in the second half.

Wicklow outscored Dublin in two-pointers, four to two, and if you removed Dublin’s two first half-goals, both relatively fortuitous, Wicklow might well have caused an earthquake around Aughrim.

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No wonder there was a curious mix of emotions among the respective managers afterwards, Dessie Farrell struggling to make sense of Dublin’s paucity of effort, with Oisín McConville beaming after the mild heroics of his Wicklow team.

“It’s just hard to legislate for that sort of lethargy that we saw out there today,” Farrell said. “There will be plenty of time for soul-searching now, over the next couple of days, and collectively as a group they need to look at that themselves as well.

“It’ll be very interesting to dissect and have a conversation with the group afterwards to see what was going on for us today. Hopefully this was a little bit of an outlier, and it’s definitely something we won’t be taking lightly. It is just the intensity, just getting to the pitch of it. You can’t be half-hearted about these things. That is the big thing. We need to be on point around the intensity and the effort we are bringing.”

Dublin’s Brian Howard comes up against John Paul Nolan of Wicklow. Photograph: Dan Sheridan/Inpho

Dublin have two weeks before facing Meath in the semi-final, the last team to beat them in Leinster back in 2010. Brian Howard and Ciarán Kilkenny did show their enduring value to the team, but with Stephen Cluxton not yet back between the posts because of injury, Hugh O’Sullivan started in goal, and Dublin’s kick-outs were soft in impact compared to Wicklow’s Mark Jackson.

“We probably did tire a wee bit in the second half,” McConville said, his team playing just seven days after beating Longford. “We’d be happy with loads of stuff, lots of performances the boys can be proud of, but I still think that in the first half, we had opportunities where the same old failings came out to play. That’s why we weren’t promoted, because our decision making in front of goal hasn’t been what it needed to be.

“But that’s the only real quibble, apart from that we manned up, we were physical, didn’t shirk any of the challenges, we worked our kickout well and put a decent bit of pressure on theirs. And that was the starting point for us.

“After that, I thought we played a lot of good football. It’s just that little thing, where we probably didn’t convert as much as we’d have liked to.”

Wicklow were up on Dublin 0-5 to 0-4 on 20 minutes, when Healy made an excellent defensive interception for Wicklow; however the loose ball spilled into the path of Niall Scully, who volleyed straight into net to give Dublin some breathing space.

Wicklow hit back with a two-pointer from Healy, their second of the afternoon. Then in the 25th minute, Colm Basquel was brought down close to goal, with O’Callaghan stepping up for the penalty. Mark Jackson pulled off a fine save, only for the rebound to fall into O’Callaghan’s hands, who deftly tapped home on his second attempt.

Still, two more two-pointers, from Mark Kenny and Oisin McGraynor, kept Wicklow in touch, trailing 2-9 to 0-11 at the break.

Dublin hit three unanswered points early in the second half, now playing with the breeze, but still Wicklow never lowered their resistance. Joe Prendergast came close to landing them a goal on 50 minutes, blasting over the bar instead, and their accuracy did occasionally let them down. They finished with eight wides.

“Obviously that’s the best quality of opposition that we’ve played, even though they were a little bit off today,” added McConville. “But when it looked as if it could get away from us, and it could get ugly, we dug in.

“We normally play in front of 5-600, that’s the best crowd we’ve had, and the players responded. The provincial grounds is where it’s at this time of year. A no-brainer for me.”

Farrell meanwhile was still trying to wrap his brain around Dublin’s performance, especially with the breeze: “We took the foot off the pedal, and just made it more of a contest than we needed to make of it to be honest.

“It just won’t be good enough going forward.”

WICKLOW: M Jackson; T Moran, C Maguire, M Stone; J Prendergast (0-0-1), P O’Keane (0-0-1), M Nolan; D Healy (capt) (0-1-2), J Kirwan; JP Nolan, P O’Toole (0-0-1), D Fee (0-0-1); O McGraynor (0-1-3, one free), K Quinn (0-1-1), M Kenny (0-1-0). Subs: C O’Brien for Kirwan (45 mins), G Fogarty for O’Keane (64 mins), C Fee for Kenny (65 mins), C Baker for Maguire, L O’Neill for Nolan (both 68 mins).

DUBLIN: H O’Sullivan; D Byrne, T Clancy, C Tyrell; B Howard, G McEneaney (0-0-1), S MacMahon; P Ó Cofaigh Byrne, T Lahiff (0-1-1); N Scully (1-0-1), S Bugler (0-0-2), C Kilkenny (0-0-3); R McGarry, C O’Callaghan (1-1-5, one free), C Basquel (0-0-2). Subs: Paddy Small (0-0-1) for McEneaney (50 mins), L Dell for McGarry (56 mins), K McGinnis (0-0-1) blood sub for Lahiff, J Madden for Scully (61 mins), N Doran for Howard (70 mins).

Referee: Seamus Mulhare (Laois).

Attendance: 6,600 (capacity).