LEINSTER SFC PRELIMINARY ROUND: Wicklow 0-13 Kildare 0-9: FIFTY YEARS ago Mick O'Dwyer made his first appearance at Croke Park in a senior championship match. Yesterday in the much-changed stadium he marked the anniversary of what was at the time Kerry's stunning defeat by Derry by springing another surprise and landing his latest charges their first win in a championship match at the venue.
Once more Waterville's footballing Dr Good Vibes had orchestrated a miracle outcome for a county and presided over a historic breakthrough.
Wicklow supporters were predictably ecstatic, even if the most striking aspect of this Leinster championship first round was the directionless and feeble challenge mounted by Kildare. The whole National League span of three divisions separated the counties at the start but by the end Wicklow had been such convincing winner their heavily-backed opponents were flattered by the four-point deficit.
Wicklow were full of running and sufficiently composed not to lose heart after an under-performing first half. Clinically - just one wide in the second half - they stacked up the scores and comfortably coped with their opponents' unconvincing attempts to rescue the situation.
In retrospect it's all a bit clearer. Given their manager, Wicklow were always going to be more a summer team than earnest league toilers and that was hinted at in last year's prolonged tussle with Louth and the eventual Tommy Murphy Cup success.
In the white corner was Armagh's All-Ireland winning captain, Kieran McGeeney, who as a player had often appeared to bend matches by sheer force of his iron will. But this is his first management season and for much of the match he stood perplexed, watching his team's dismal efforts at salvage.
Last week Westmeath were scolded for their importation of Ulster custom in the win over Longford and McGeeney must have had a familiar feeling as he watched Wicklow funnelling back furiously in the second half to disrupt any chance of a Kildare comeback.
For the final attacks the entire cast of players, bar five (Kildare's goalkeeper plus two defenders and the forwards they were marking) were thronging the field inside Wicklow's 45. Not that this took steely tactical discipline: Kildare's attacks from deep were so laboured and slow their opponents would have had time to play leap-frog down the pitch and still be in a position to mount a blanket defence by the time the ball arrived.
The lack of good, fast ball delivered into the forwards was a crippling inhibition for McGeeney's team and characteristically, he had already perused the preliminary evidence by the time he spoke to the media.
"We were winning enough ball but from our own statistics, 14 of our attacks broke down in the final third in the first half. You probably wouldn't have that many more attacks than 14 or 15 in one half. If 14 are going to break down or be given away it's going to be difficult.
"Too many basic errors - the delivery of ball in and decisions on the ball - I wish I could say there was any one reason for that but there was a numerous amount."
Wicklow were unlucky to be only level, 0-5 each, at the break. Their own chances hadn't all gone whistling over the bar and the usually accurate Tony Hannon had three wides, including two frees, in a team total of seven. But they were lively and adventurous.
Full forward Seánie Furlong, one of the under-21s who shocked provincial champions Laois, gave Kevin O'Neill a nerve-racking return from injury to intercounty football and from the outside line Hannon and Leighton Glynn ran around hungrily.
Kildare's defence wasn't as afflicted with torpor as the attack but despite some zealous tracking and excellent blocks there was too little happening at the other end.
Thomas Walsh and James Stafford exploited Kildare's reluctance to use Dermot Earley at centrefield and although Killian Brennan worked hard there was no zip to the attacking movement. Wicklow's defence was happy to take advantage. Mick McLoughlin was everywhere, snapping up breaking ball while Dara Ó hAnnaidh locked the defence well and kept John Doyle scoreless from play for the time they spent together.
Things didn't improve much elsewhere for the Allenwood marksman but in the second quarter he looked more of a threat on the edge of the square and Kildare recovered a three-point deficit, 0-2 to 0-5, in the closing 10 minutes before half-time.
Instead of the favourites tightening their grip after the break it was Wicklow who made the scoring burst and took control. In the six minutes after the restart Hannon returned to form with three points, from a free, a 45 and play. Furlong added a free that flowed from a goal chance he had created but Dean Odlum's punched attempt at finishing hit the post before a defender fouled the ball.
A 47th-minute goal chance for Kildare flew over for a point from Alan Smith, whose fellow under-21 Gary White received a red card for striking seven minutes later, by which stage the margin was still five and Kildare required a miracle even with 13 minutes to go.
That wasn't to happen. With the stadium announcer calling stewards to end-of-match positions Brennan thrashed a shot wide as if in doleful agreement.
Instead of trying to piece together a run of points to bring an unlikely deliverance within range, Kildare panicked and tried to open up goal routes.
With 13 jubilant Wicklow men between them and the destination that approach didn't look likely. Nor was it.
WICKLOW: 1 M Travers; 2 C Hyland, 3 D Power, 4 A Byrne; 5 M McLoughlin, 6 D Ó hAnnaidh (capt), 7 P Dalton; 8 J Stafford, 9 T Walsh; 10 T Hannon (0-6, four frees, one 45), 11 L Glynn (0-1), 12 JP Dalton; 13 S Odlum, 14 S Furlong (0-4, two frees), 15 P Earls (0-1). Subs: 18 C Walsh (0-1)for Odlum (48 mins). Yellow cards: D Odlum (15 mins), JP Dalton (58 mins).
KILDARE: 1 T Corley; 2 M O'Flaherty, 3 K O'Neill, 4 E Bolton; 5 A Rainbow, 6 A Mac Lochlainn, 7 G White; 8 K Brennan (capt), 11 D Flynn; 9 D Earley, 10 J Doyle (0-2, both frees), 12 R Sweeney (0-1); 15 A Smith (0-3), 13 M Conway (0-1), 27 K Cribben (0-1). Subs: 18 E Callaghan for Bolton (25 mins); 14 P O'Neill for Sweeney, 19 M Scanlon for Mac Lochlainn (both 45 mins); 25 T Fennin (0-1)for Cribben (51 mins); 23 P Mullarkey for Flynn (62 mins). Yellow cards: K Brennan (6 mins), K O'Neill (16 mins), G White (41 mins), P O'Neill (70 mins). Red: G White (56 mins).
Referee: J Bannon(Longford).
Attendance: 21,707.
