Wicklow quartet set for Sigerson Cup final experience

FOUR Wicklow footballers will experience a Sigerson Cup final tonight (Wednesday) when IT Carlow line up against DCU Dochas Eireann in DCU at 7.30pm.

Kiltegan’s Podge O’Toole, Annacurra’s Gearoid Murphy, Blessington’s Patrick O’Connor and AGB’s Peter Hempenstall will represent the Garden County in the flagship colleges competition against a highly fancied DCU side in what should be an intriguing clash.

Kiltegan’s O’Toole, a regular in Davy Burke’s Senior panel as well, got the fist to the ball to bag the goal against Letterkenny IT that sent Pat Critchely’s side through to decider, and is a regular starter on a team peppered with capable footballers.

The affable O’Toole says that Critchely is an excellent manager and is one of the main reasons behind this team reaching the first Sigerson Cup final in the college’s history.

‘He’s excellent, really good at coaching a team, he knows what’s going on. He spent last year building this team up and we got a few lads up from the Freshers.

‘He’s a PE teacher and he plays a really good brand of football. It’s defence but not overly defensive. We try to catch other teams on the counter. We defend with numbers behind the ball but when the chance comes nobody holds up the ball.

‘Letterkenny (the semi-final) were tough, they’re a northern team so you’d expect that. If we were slow getting up the field we struggled,’ he said.

Podge feels that playing football at this level with some of the best footballers in the country can only be a positive experience and after victories over IT Tralee, UCC and Letterkenny IT, victory in tonight’s game would be a dream come true and a massive boost to the four lads.

Standing in their way is DCU, a team with John Small in their ranks. It won’t be easy.