‘We were expecting a tough game, and we got one’ – Micheál Donoghue on what Carlow delivered against Dublin

Dublin trailed by six points in the first half, by four at half-time, and finally drew level ten minutes into the second half after trailing for most of the match until then.

“We came down here last year, it’s a really tough place to come. We were expecting very much the same today,” Donoghue said, referring to last year’s All-Ireland preliminary quarter-final win in Carlow when they only shook off the home team in the final ten minutes.

This time, Carlow were even more tenacious and competitive, with Fergal Whitely’s freak goal in the 59th minute opening a four-point lead, and Dublin managed to see it out from there.

“Carlow definitely started way better than us. They probably deserved to go in at half-time a few more points ahead. Obviously, we weren’t happy with the way we performed, we had to address a few things at half-time and, in fairness, the lads came out and put in a better shift in the second half.

“We were expecting a tough game, and we got one. We knew we had to start well and we didn’t start well. We put a huge emphasis on starting well and we didn’t get that and we were 9-3 down [after 17 minutes], we left ourselves with an awful lot to do."

It capped a good week for Dublin, their first group win coming after last weekend’s draw in Wexford earned by a late goal from Cian O’Sullivan. Their position has also been improved by Wexford’s shock loss in Corrigan Park to Antrim, who Dublin face in a fortnight at home.

“That was a big result,” said Donoghue of Antrim’s win. “Look, we’ve two weeks off now before our first home game and will put a lot of emphasis on that. It’s about recovery now.”

He explained why they decided to use Eoghan O’Connell in attack, the Whitehall player taking a while to settle into the role.

“Last week, we played him wing-back, and he went to midfield for a part of the game and he was very good going forward. So today was an opportunity just to see what he was like. He started centre-forward, made a few decent runs in the second half. He probably had a bigger impact on the game [after half-time], chipped in with a few scores and was involved in the goal incident.”

He was referring to Whitely’s decisive, if fortuitous goal, when O’Donnell was in the vicinity as the ball dropped short, possibly distracting goalkeeper Ciarán Abbey, who let the ball drop through his hand.