Carlow out to end long wait for promotion

Ask people in Carlow when they last won their opening two league games and confusion reigns.

‘It’s bound to have happened, right?’ was the typical response before a series of scurrying phone calls started. Neighbours, clubmates and local historians were all consulted. It’s 14 years since the 1998/’99 when they beat Longford and, coincidentally, Tipperary only to miss out on promotion by scoring difference.

The curse of Carlow football has always been an inability to put one good performance on the back of another. In 2008 they travelled to Miltown Malbay on the opening day and beat a Clare side fresh from McGrath Cup glory only to be hockeyed by Offaly in the next round, 3-19 to 0-8.

In between a controversy erupted. A newly established supporters club financed the county’s U21s to travel to the game as a bonding exercise. Tales of rowdy footballers destroying an Ennis hotel were printed in several papers and the senior players spent the week before the Limerick game in damage limitation mode. It didn’t matter that the hotel manager confirmed no wrongdoing occurred, Carlow’s momentum stalled.

With only 52,000 souls to call from, the loss of a starting player is catastrophic to the entire season and the barriers to success are everywhere. With no chance of All-Ireland glory and regularly cast as 250/1 underdogs within their province, the motivation for playing is not based on walking up the steps of the Hogan Stand.

Perennial battlers in Division 4, the glory lies in the prospect of being the first Carlow football team to earn promotion since the modern league was established. Victories provide morale-boosting hope. That’s why the weekend’s win over Tipperary was so important. With London visiting Dr Cullen Park on February 16 they should have two wins from two for the first time in living memory and promotion would become realistic.

“100%,” said goalkeeper Trevor O’Reilly. “[Manager] Anthony Rainbow has given us that belief. He’s been there and done it with Kildare and Ireland with the International Rules.

“We are thinking about the game all the time now and talking about tactics all the time. A lot of people don’t see that. We train as hard as every county and Sunday was a reward. I suppose we had our sights set on the Tipp game since we started pre-season. We put that game down as the one to lay down a marker.

“We’ve only won one game and we’re not getting ahead of ourselves,” added Trevor. “It may put us under added pressure now ahead of the London game. But there’s no point winning at the weekend if we’re not going to try and follow it up now.”