With 10 minutes to go, what had been a pleasant O'Byrne Cup outing at Aughrim took a turn for the worse. A cruel, scarifyingly cold wind sliced through the brittle, sunny afternoon like a razor. As Dublin's four-point lead, which had been comfortably atrophying up to that point, began to vanish in the face of a late Wicklow onslaught, the dreaded thought crossed every mind. Extra time.
In the time remaining the modest attendance was put through the wringer, as Dublin first appeared to have recovered a winning position but then lost it again. A last-minute penalty from Ronan Coffey tied up the match at 1-12 each.
A year ago Dublin risked lives in Longford by going to extra time in a match they lost anyway. This time they weren't prepared to have it on their consciences and fouled twice in injury-time to give Wicklow's dead-eye full forward Tommy Gill scope to decide matters.
It was a peculiar match with both teams throwing away what looked like distinct advantages at various stages. In the first half, it was Wicklow's inaccuracy that wasted what had been a dominant platform. With Dublin apparently distracted, the home side put together some good attacks. Gill and Ronan Coffey backboned a lively attack and Thomas Harney showed up well in the early play, distributing the ball well. Gill was the main strike forward and hit four points before halftime.
The problem for Wicklow was that Dublin seemed to score effortlessly when the humour was on them. Vinny Murphy got the lion's share and (aside from a point by Enda Sheehy) was the only starting forward to score for the visitors.
There were flashes of quality from Kenneth Darcy, younger brother of Declan, who started at centrefield. A couple of big catches, some clever kicking and an efficiently dispatched goal were all features of Darcy's first competitive appearance for the county.
Between the 24th and 28th minute, however, Gill stuck over two perfect, full forward's points (showing for and winning the ball and converting the chances) and together with a free looked to have established interval superiority for Wicklow. Instead, an unanswered 1-3 switched the initiative to Dublin.
For most of the second half, that's where it stayed. Murphy kept the scoreboard ticking over and the lead was four, 1-10 to 09, with eight minutes left. It was wing back Breandan O hAnnaidh who started the fight back. He converted a 45 with conviction and followed up within a minute with a fine, long-range point.
Two late points in response from Murphy and Dublin's composure was restored but after Anthony Mernagh was brought down for the penalty, Coffey looked to have brought an extra half-hour down on everyone. But Gill's late frees averted a late freeze.
WICKLOW: R Hollingsworth; M Coffey, K Foley, T Burke; G Jameson, B O'Donovan, B O hAnnaidh (03, one 45); D Dillon, G Doran; D Jackman, R Coffey (1-1, goal from penalty), T Harney; P O'Callaghan (0-1, a free), T Gill (0-8, four frees), J Behan (0-1). Subs: O O hAnnaidh for Jackman (half-time), A Mernagh for Harney (50 mins), B Sheehan for Burke (50 mins), B Whelan for Jameson (55 mins).
DUBLIN: D Byrne; M Cahill, C Goggins, T Lynch; I Clarke, M Casey, S Connell (0-2); D Homan, K Darcy (1-0); C McGuinness, P Curran, E Sheehy (0-1); N O'Donoghue, M Doran, V Murphy (0-9, three frees). Subs: J McGee for Connell (half-time); C Whelan for O'Donoghue (55 mins); J Sherlock for Doran (60 mins); W McCarthy for Casey (67 mins).
Referee: J Smith (Meath).
