Minors face Dublin in Leinster football encounter

KEVIN O’BRIEN takes his Minor footballers into the heart of Dublin GAA tonight (Wednesday) when the Wicklow side come up against Dublin in game four of the five-game Leinster championship group series.

After a dreadfully unlucky defeat to Offaly, Wicklow bounced back with a barnstorming performance against Louth where they were also unlucky not to get the win, but they did emerge with a share of the spoils.

With momentum gathering nicelty for the talented Minors outfit, they dismantled Westmeath in Joule Park Aughrim before the Leaving Cert exams and both they and Wicklow GAA supporters will hope that the break for the exams has not affected their preparations in anyway and manager Kevin O’Brien said that the players have put in a genuine effort and they aim to be ultra-competitive when they take to the field against the Dubs in Parnell Park.

‘This is match four of five, that’s how we are looking at it,’ said Kevin O’Brien. ‘Everybody has really applied themselves and we (the management team) have watched Dublin on two or three occasions and we’ve done our homework. They have a lot of 17-year-olds whereas we have 17-year-olds and 16-year-olds and they are a typical Dublin team,’ he added.

The Wicklow boss said that while the intensity and performance of the Minors was good against Westmeath, that result is now in the past and that this game against Dublin is match four of five matches and the aim all the way along was to be competitive and that his side have been very competitive the whole way through.

The game throws in at 7.30pm in Parnell Park with Wicklow hungry for a win which would leave their last clash with Meath in Joule Park Aughrim as a humdinger of a clash with progression in the Leinster championship a real possibility.