Tailteann Cup final: Wicklow 1-21 (1-4-13) Down 2-16 (2-3-10)
As remarkable a comeback win as this was from Wicklow, somehow coming from 13 points down to grab a golden ticket to the 2027 Sam Maguire Cup race, we shouldn’t have been surprised.
Consider this for a statistic; Wicklow played six games in this season’s Tailteann Cup competition and trailed at half-time in them all.
Quite what that says about their first-half performances, and their ability to hit the ground running in games, is frankly a discussion for another day.
What deserves to be celebrated right now is this group’s unique capacity to turn apparent lost causes into landmark results with thrilling second-half performances.
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Trailing by a dozen points at half-time, captain and man of the match Dean Healy led another stunning comeback as Wicklow outscored Down by 1-17 to 0-6 in the second half.
Against Offaly, on the same pitch at the semi-final stage, they did something very similar, outscoring the Faithful County by 1-17 to 1-4 in the second half of that game.
Before that, against Antrim in the quarter-finals, Wicklow came from nine points down to win while they had to come from behind against Tipperary and Limerick to win the previous two games as well.
The only game Wicklow actually failed to successfully turn around was the Round One tie against Laois, trailing in that game at both half-time and full-time.
That game followed their agonising near miss against Dublin in the Leinster SFC in Aughrim, so Wicklow’s season had the potential to implode and combust at the time.
There was a punishing defeat to Longford at the tail end of the League too, a result that cost Wicklow promotion from Division Four.
But it only made their incredible Tailteann Cup win all the sweeter when they eventually pulled it off. And how they’ll celebrate this one.
An hour or so after full-time, the Wicklow players filed out of their dressingroom to be greeted by about 20 young children looking for autographs. There’ll be plenty more of that in the coming days and weeks.
Healy finished with 1-1 and sniped the 56th-minute goal that drew the sides level for the very first time. They were tied again with 10 minutes to go, and Down briefly regained the lead, but Wicklow carried all the momentum at that stage and it all must have felt gloriously familiar as they completed the comeback with the last three scores of the game.
Healy, Oisín McGraynor, Kevin Quinn, Eoin Darcy, the entire defence that limited Down to just six second-half points, Oisin McConville on the sideline, heroes all.
“It wasn’t part of the plan,” said manager McConville of the revival, having trailed 0-4 to 2-11 after 36 minutes “We’d spent three weeks on the fact that in the previous two games we’d been down by eight and nine points. As I say, it wasn’t part of the plan to have to do it again. If you’re going to be winning games, I wouldn’t be advising that long-term to be 13 points down. But look, people keep talking about resilience and heart and desire.
“I said to them at half time, we scored 1-17 in the second half here the last day. If we score that again we win the game. And I know Down had a few chances at the end, but I’d say we had as many goal opportunities, if not more than they had.”
Which is a key point about Wicklow’s win – as much as it was a smash and grab, they also left a lot behind them.
Eoin Darcy had a penalty saved in the 27th minute, Quinn had a couple of goal attempts blocked. There were five first-half wides and a couple of score attempts that dropped short.
Still, Down led 2-10 to 0-4 at half time and will have nightmares about how they let it slip. Conor Laverty said ahead of the game that having already won the title in 2024, they were more interested in the free pass to next year’s All-Ireland race than taking the trophy home again.
And they might still end up playing Sam Maguire Cup football in 2027 having secured promotion to Division Two earlier this year.
But the mental scars from tossing this one away could be difficult to shift. Having needed extra time to beat Wexford in the Division Three final, and having lost finals against Westmeath and Meath in recent years, when they were similarly favourites to win, the loss is bound to come with a lengthy postmortem.
Down did lots right in the first half and deserved their dozen-point lead. Pat Havern and John McGeough both beat Wicklow goalkeeper Mark Jackson in aerial battles to flick in goals, in the 16th and 29th minutes.
Goalkeeper Ronan Burns, with a 100 per cent success rate on his first-half kickouts, nailed two long-range frees as well.
But it was all Wicklow after the break and even Tom Moran’s 64th-minute black card couldn’t halt their gallop late on as they twisted the knife.
Down manager Conor Laverty was almost lost for words afterwards.
“First half, we were extremely happy,” he just about got out. “Second half, it was ... a disaster.”
WICKLOW: M Jackson (0-1-1, 1tpf, 1′45); M Stone, T Moran, G Fogarty; D Fee, E Murtagh, M Nolan; D Healy (1-0-1), J Kirwan; J Carlin, P O’Toole (0-0-3), C O’Brien (0-1-0); O McGraynor (0-1-2, 1f), K Quinn (0-0-4), E Darcy (0-1-2, 1f). Subs: J Prendergast for Kirwan (52 mins), C Deering for Murtagh (54), M Kenny for Fogarty (59), JP Nolan for McGraynor (68), L O’Neill for Darcy (69).
DOWN: R Burns (0-2-0, 2tpf); P Fegan, P Laverty, P McCarthy; C Rogers, S Annett (0-0-1), R McCormack (0-0-1); R McEvoy, O Murdock; D Guinness (0-0-1), C Doherty (0-0-3), M Rooney (0-1-1); J McGeough (1-0-0), P Havern (1-0-2, 1f), E Brown (0-0-1). Subs: C Mooney for McCarthy (28 mins), R Magill for Rogers (48), R O’Hare for McGeough (53), P Brooks for Brown (64).
Referee: B Tiernan (Dublin).
