‘Exceptional’ showing

AFTER seeing his Wicklow Schools team record a comprehensive victory over Dundalk Schools in the first round of the Top Oil Brother Bosco Cup Leinster Post-Primary Schools Senior ‘A’ Football Championship, manager John-Paul Davis has described his side’s performance as ‘exceptional’.

Second-half goals from Mark Cullen and Aaron Kennedy helped Wicklow on their way to the comfortable 2-18 to 2-9 win in Dundalk on Saturday, with Davis’ men having led 0-8 to 0-5 at the half-time interval.

Despite the narrow margin at the break, Davis – who co-manages the Wicklow Schools alongside the likes of Gary Duffy and Alan Deering -- told the Wicklow People that they always believed that they had enough to get the win, while singling Aaron Kennedy out for special praise.

‘We were only up by three points at half-time, but we still believed that we were the better team on the day,’ he said, reflecting on the game.

‘The lads felt themselves that they were the better team,’ said Davis.

‘Some of the link-up play didn’t work at times, but the guys profited from some good scores, from Aaron Kennedy especially.’

While Davis did admit that there were areas of their game that would need to be worked on, he insisted that he was not concerned by the goals that they conceded in the second half of the contest.

‘The lads worked really hard. There wasn’t a whole lot that they could do about the goals.

‘We left a few holes open at the back, at times, which we can work on, but I wouldn’t get carried away with the goals that went in.’