Mulligan believes in Longford

Longford are targeting a place in this year’s Leinster final, according to full back Shane Mulligan.

With Dublin and Kildare on the other side of the draw, Mulligan believes Longford have as good a chance as anyone of making it to the decider because they are better prepared than at any stage since he made his breakthrough 10 years ago.

That is despite being relegated in the league this year, having had two successive promotions.

“The ambition is to go further and make a final appearance” insisted Mulligan.

“I don’t know what has been the stumbling block when we got over first rounds [before]. It was probably a case when we got those first round wins we were in not as good a position to capitalise on them as we needed to be.

“I feel this time we have a lot of good work done, not just this year but for the last few years, and that is what you need in championship.

“It is not about a couple of games or a couple of months even, you need a couple of hard years of work put in to build up that experience and that strength in depth you need to compete for a Leinster championship.”

Mulligan isn’t so foolish as to overlook Wicklow, particularly as Aughrim is such a forbidding venue for anyone.

He is ambitious but knows that those ambitions could be scuppered on Sunday.

“We will be looking to gain momentum.

“Last year was a long year. In fact it was a long two years, coming straight from back-to-back promotions.

“We feel that we are a bit hungrier, a bit fresher now after getting the league out of the way.

“Championship is a different ball game and Wicklow is Wicklow. No matter how well the league had gone you would still be taking nothing for granted going to Aughrim.

“There is not a county team that would go to Wicklow thinking that this is a sure thing. It is a difficult place to go to play good, hard football, so we would be taking nothing for granted there and we will have to be clued in.”