Carlow midfielder James Hickey believes that the win over Laois has taken the pressure off them as they prepare to face Antrim on Saturday evening.

The Barrowsiders face Antrim in the first round of the qualifiers having defeated Laois in the preliminary round and Hickey feels that they received a lot of unfair criticism following their Leinster championship exit at the hands of the O'Moore County earlier in the year.

"Looking to Next Saturday is a different test altogether. There was huge pressure on us coming into that game. I will make no bones about it," said Hickey.

"The supporters have been hard on the hurlers especially after the last time. Some of the criticisms that the hurlers got was a bit unfair. But the shackles are off now. We can go out and hurl like we did against Wexford and Clare.

"If we lost we were still on a programme. People don't know about this but next year the league is where we are developing. By winning against Laois we will have closed the gap." Tweet

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