SUNDAY'S NFL game in Aughrim was a deflating experience for Carlow in light of previous good results against the Garden County of late, but failure must consider the absence of front-line forwards JJ Smith and Daniel St. Leger (suspended) Simon Rea (injured) and the prolonged absence of team captain Brian Murphy who attended on crutches after a cruciate operation.

Nevertheless it was a dismal performance from the remainder and many levels below that against Wexford in the O'Byrne Shied final the previous week.

Alarming was that Carlow only scored twice from play; those points from Sean Gannon in the 34th and 52nd minutes and the team failing to score at all for the opening 20 minutes, by which time Wicklow were three to the good.

Absent was the panache they displayed in the Shield in Dr. Cullen Park and this result sees the end of their promotion aspirations, having lost to Limerick and held level by Waterford when leaking a five point advantage.

The game was a scrappy affair with the home team playing with more acuity and creating and using space to better advantage than Carlow who simply did not have the pace over the initial metres, although the defence did well under the pressure with Paul Cashin, John Hayden and Alan Curran forming a combative half line.

It hardly helped the Barrow cause when Curran was dismissed on a second yellow card 15 minutes from the end with the home team ahead 13-6.

Not even the introduction of under 21s Brendan Murphy – first at full-forward and later to the middle – and Shane Redmond could inject sufficient energy into the visitors who never threatened the Wicklow goal, even though they were awarded ten of the eleven frees blown in the first dozen minutes of the second half and 19 of the total of 24 in that period.

The winners played with more purpose and consistency and with Paul Earls spending more time in defence than in his role as No. 13, their defence was in the comfort zone with the full line of Ciaran Hyland Stephen Kelly and Alan Byrne in full control; Hyland having a particularly good match as did Brian McGrath at pivot who kept rein on Sean Gannon even if the Eire Og player improved in the second half.

Wicklow went three up through Seanie Furlong (2, one free) and Stephen Canavan come the 18th minute before Johnny Kavanagh opened the visiting account with a free for a foul on John Murphy in the 20th minute.

Carlow slipped further into arrears when recording only two of the remaining six points of the half and closed 3-7 behind at the break; Wicklow best supported by Hyland, Kelly, McGrath James Stafford, Glynn and Earls.

Despite the shuffling which saw Brendan Murphy join the match there was no improvement in the Carlow delivery and they fell 10-4 behind 13 minutes into the last half, and while Wicklow had a barren nine minutes until knocking over three scores between the 22nd and 26th minutes, they were seldom troubled, and not even six Carlow substitutes could rescue the tri-colour who may not concentrate on strategy for their May date with the royal blues in Portlaoise, but on Sunday's form they have a lot of ground to make up.

Disappointing was the Carlow attack which was lifeless, scoring only one free in the final 17 minutes and that from a Marc Carpenter free with the final kick of the contest. Gannon lifted his performance in the last half but Carpenter found avenues closed when seeking targets for what he won.

The closest Carlow came to a green flag was when Kavanagh hit the base of the left post after a move involving Curran, John Murphy, John Doyle and Carpenter with the opening raid of the afternoon.

Carlow were awarded 34 of the 52 frees and registered six (4, 2) wides to Wicklow's nine. Yellow cards were shown to Curran ( 2) Padraig Murphy Ken Doyle Sean Gannon and to Wicklow's Alan Byrne Brian McGrath Leighton Glynn Rory Finn Paul Cunningham and Paddy Byrne but in truth a number could have been overlooked.

- PAUL DONAGHY in Aughrim