County squads enjoy a date with sweet success
LAST weekend was a fruitful one for Wicklow county teams with three victories to report from three outings.
Wicklow's All-ireland champion lady footballers travelled south to Enniscorthy were they notched up a one point win over the home county by a point with the winning score coming at the death.
As expected Harry Murphy's footballers racked up a massive 30 points victory over hapless Kilkenny at Freshford but that's as easy as it will get in this years division four league campaign for Wicklow.
The team have been making steady progress since Harry took over from Mick O'dwyer at the start of the year but the real test of their mettle will start from the beginning of March when they head into the serious side of the league with a home match against Waterford.
From there on Wicklow can expect nothing to come easy and they will need to be battle hardened and fully prepared for the crucial contests up ahead which will decide our fate - whether we secure promotion or again remain rooted in the basement fourth division.
Harry Murphy is looking to organise a number of challenge matches over the next few weeks to sharpen his team even further for the big tests up ahead and one of the possibilities he is looking at is putting his troops through the hoops of an army assault course.
Casey O'brien's hurlers bounced back from their defeat to St. Patrick's Drumcondra by 3-11 to 2-9 in the Kehoe Cup to record a two points win over Kildare (3-16 to 1-20) in a challenge game at Newbridge on Sunday last.
Kildare were one of the major obstacles that Wicklow had to clear to win the 3A league title in 2011, but now Casey O'brien's men will need to move up a couple of gears if they are to make an impression in the higher division 2, especially as they will be without Don Hyland who has retired from inter-county hurling, and regular centre-back Liam Kennedy who is recuperating after a lung operation.
The hurlers will get their first taste of league action on February 26 when they will be at home to Derry, a county who have a huge score to settle with Wicklow after being beaten three times by Casey O'brien's men in 2011.
Casey O'brien will be ratcheting up his preparations over the coming weeks, aiming to arrange some testing challenges against superior opponents, starting last night with a practice against De La Salle from Waterford - county champions two years ago - under lights at Craanford.
With Wicklow's attack no long able to fall-back on Hyland for a dig out, players like Andy O'brien will have to shoulder more of the responsibility.
Andy O'brien scored 1-4 against Kildare, which was encouraging, but all the players need to be at peak fitness if they are to withstand the heat in the higher league grade.
- MARK KENNEDY Sports Reporter
