Not enough talent in depth in team, suggests selector
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"IT WAS a poor performance by us, but we missed a few scores early on which did not help," was how selector Hughie Brennan viewed Carlow's NFL defeat in Aughrim on Sunday.
Once Carlow were reduced to fourteen players, with the dismissal of Alan Curran, the team was further struggling, he felt.
"Then we were a number of players short and we can't afford that, but that's where we are," he added suggesting that the team does not have talent in depth.
The Eire Og club chairman thought the referee was 'hard' on Carlow with the yellow cards. "When it comes to the fair play league we're certainly not on the bottom - there is no way we are a dirty team."
While acknowledging the need for discipline he felt that football is a physical game.
"I don't know what they're trying to do with the game in Croke Park -part of the game is the hard physical battle. Many of the cards are hardly justified and I feel some destroy matches and once you're down to fourteen players are so fit and mobile you're struggling."
Carlow, he added, came from a high against Wexford to the low of Sunday. "We're still looking for consistency, but I think it will come," looking at the forward line as the critical area for improvement, even thought he recognised that Carlow were short five forwards.
"The team is working very hard and they have showed what they can do, although this week is back to where we have been for a long time. But we'll keep working on it."
Manager Luke Dempsey told the players they were capable of far better, "even if you did not show it today," adding that under 21 would be promoted if seniors were not performing well.
He asked the squad if they were going to permit Wicklow to repeat Sunday's result in the championship in May and called for a better and sustained effort from the panel.
Wicklow manager Mick O'Dwyer felt the match, and his own team's performance, "was a bit ragged, but we were a better team all the way, but then we needed to, from a morale point of view, because of what Carlow had done to us in previous games."
However, he said both teams had considerable work to do before colliding in the championship in Portlaoise in May.
"Yes, there's plenty of room for improvement in both teams, but as you know we don't generally do well in O'Byrne Cups or the leagueÉthe only thing I like is the championship and that's what I prepare teams for."
