A draw was a fair result in Fenagh Carlow GAA Centre of Excellence last evening

Wicklow 1-8 Carlow 0-11
Wicklow U16 footballers travelled to Fenagh Carlow GAA Centre of Excellence to play Carlow in the first round of the Gerry Reilly Leinster U16 Championship tonight (12 July 2018). Wicklow were missing almost an entire 15 players through holidays, injury & the 8 players involved in the County U17 replay V Kildare tomorrow night in Aughrim. Manager Hugh Kenny , coaches Gerry Browne, Kevin Healy, Tom Fee and Micky Daly have been training this group of players every week since January. In preparation for this game Wicklow played Carlow, Wexford & New York in Ferns Co Wexford last Saturday in a one day blitz and this was followed up by a challenge on Tuesday night V Kilcullen in Dunlavin.

Full credit to the 21 players who performed with such spirit & determination to earn a valuable draw with Carlow. Carlow were quick into action in this game and cut through the Wicklow defence to take the lead. Jack Hanlon levelled from a free. Both teams traded points to leave it 0-2 each after 15 minutes. From then on Carlow totally dominated. Goalkeeper Caoimhin Rawson was the star man saving at least 5 clear goal chances and some great tackling by the Wicklow backs. This frustrated Carlow who then decided to kick points to better effect and closed out the half to lead 0-8 to 0-3. Wicklow regrouped at half time and made a few positional changes and brought on three substitutes. Wicklow made a bright start to the second half and pushed forward at every opportunity. Jack Hanlon converted three frees to reduce the deficits. Carlow responded with three frees.
The turning point was the placing of Jack Hanlon at full forward as he raced on to a through ball from Joseph O Shea to score the games only goal. This brought Wicklow to life and the team grew in confidence controlling the game but still two points behind. Another Jack Hanlon free and Wicklow were only one point behind. With five minutes to play up stepped full forward Keith Burke to split the posts and level the game. Wicklow worked tirelessly to get the winning score but unfortunately time was against them.
Wicklow had outstanding performances from Jack Hanlon, Jason Kenny, Caoimhin Rawson and great defensive play by Neil Browne who kept a close watch on carlow’s best forward. Captain Bradley Hickey lead by example and he was well supported by Jack Grace, Adam Hadden and Arun Daly Danne. In attack Keith Burke made his presence felt, great support play by Robbie Miley and Darragh Fee and Eoin O Neill when introduced at half time contributed enormously to the overall performance. In truth Wicklow can be very proud of every player who wore the Jersey tonight.
A draw was a fair result and now Wicklow move on to next Wednesday night in Aughrim to play Wexford followed by another home game v Laois the following week.

Wicklow Scorers: Jack Hanlon 1-6, Adam Hadden 0-1 and Keith Burke 0-1.

Wicklow: Caoimhin Rawson, Oisin Dunne, Jack Grace, Arun Daly Danne, Cillian Keane, Bradley Hickey, Neil Browne, Jack Hanlon, Adam Hadden, Dylan Lynch, Jason Kenny, Robbie Miley, Darragh Fee, Keith Burke, Jake O Kelly
Subs: Eoin O’Neill for Jake O’Kelly, Joe O’Shea for Dylan Lynch, Daniel Hedderman for Oisin Dunne, Hugh O’Brien for Robbie Miley, Tom O’Shea for Cillian Keane and Fionn O’Sullivan for Darragh Fee

(Wicklow report)