Bray face Blessington in top tie

THE Senior Football Championship second round draw has taken place and the tie of the round pits Bray Emmets versus Blessington. Both sides will have ambitions of going deep into the championship and a loss here will severely dent those chances.

Elsewhere county kingpins Rathnew face a Tinahely side high on confidence following their big victory over Aughrim and have been tipped as a dark horse for the championship. St. Pat’s have been drawn against Coolkenno and the Wicklow town side should have too much strength for their opponents, who will surely be without Conor Doyle and Eamon Rossiter but beware the wily old foxes in Paddy Dalton, Don Jackman and Conor Walker.

Baltinglass coasted to victory against St. Boden’s but Newtown will provide a much sterner test. However Baltinglass have a lot of firepower that Newtown will find difficult to contain.

For the first round losers, they have one more shot at redemption to get their season back on track but a loss in the next round and they enter a relegation battle.

That’s certainly not a situation where Kiltegan and Avondale like to see themselves and one of them will exit the championship early. It depends on what players are available on the day but Kiltegan are slight favourites.

Annacurra and Hollywood are in a similar position and league form suggests this will be close. Both teams will look for a greater return from their respective forward units.

Éire Óg should have far too much firepower for Aughrim and will attempt to repeat their championship showing from last year by reaching the latter stages following a first round loss.

North District plays St. Boden’s in the battle of the group teams and should have too much with their calibre of players.

All matches are on the weekend of the August Bank Holiday.