Hurlers crash out after making promising start

IT was more bad news for Wicklow inter-county sides this week in 1994 with the Senior hurlers went crashing out of the championship after their first-round defeat to Carlow in Dr. Cullen Park as it was then known.

Reporter Eoin Quinn was at the game for the Wicklow People and he described how the visitors turned in an outstanding first-half performance only for a late Carlow goal just before the break to undo all their good work and rob them of the psychological advantage they had prior to that.

An early Ned Cremin goal gave Wicklow a great boost against the strong favourites who had already beaten the visitors twice earlier in the year.

However, that early lead was short-lived thanks to points from Brendan Hayden and David Doyle.

There were strong showings in defence from goalkeeper Gary Quinn from Carnew, Declan Byrne, Christy O’Toole and ‘the lion-hearted’ Casey O’Brien.

Wicklow were dominant for most of the remainder of the first half but failed to comvert the glut of scoring chances they created and the sides were level at 1-7 apiece with eight to go.

John Keogh pointed them ahead in the 34th minute but Carlow struck for a major through Pat Murphy of St. Mullins to sicken the wicklow challenge on the stroke of half-time.

‘The change in Wicklow after the restart was evident from the word go,’ wrote Eoin Quinn. ‘The Wicklow defence became very ragged and Carlow exploited this to full advantage, scoring a total of 2-9 and notching up four wides.

‘Wicklow, on the other hand, managed only two points during the entire 35 minutes, one from a John Keogh free and the other a fine point from Don Hyland who latched on to a Christy O’Toole cross,’ wrote Quinn.

Wicklow: Gary Quinn; Declan Byrne, Stephen Kennedy, Denis Kilbride; Christy O’Toole, Casey O’Brien, John Casey; Tommy Mulroe (0-1), Nigel Byrne; Danny Curran, Tom Byrne, Ned Cremin (1-0); Brian Gleeson, Don Hyland (0-3), John Keogh (0-6). Subs: George Johnson for Mulroe (inj), David Moran, David Bury.