Carlow caught the eye as they inflicted a 1-17 to 1-12 defeat on Wicklow in a decent game of football at Dr Cullen Park.

Up the spine of the team, Brendan Murphy, Darragh Foley, Daniel St Ledger and goalkeeper Robbie Molloy impressed for the hosts, who were dominant for long spells but came up against a very determined Garden outfit.

Turlough O'Brien's charges led by four points, 1-9 to 1-5, at the end of an enjoyable opening period. Indeed, with the breeze behnd them, a totally dominant home side were 1-6 to 0-1 to the good at the end of the opening quarter. Midfield talisman Murphy hit the net in the fifth minute and their first six points came from frees - five from Foley and the opening score of the match from full back St Ledger.

The elusive Paul Cunningham had opened the Garden County's account in the eleventh minute and the full forward was also denied an early goal by Molloy; when Aaron Murphy notched the losers' second point, the hosts replied through Murphy. Opposing midfielder Rory Finn closed the gap to seven and Cunningham added the fourth Wicklow point four minutes from the break.

The visiting No.14 was proving to be a real handful and the match was very much back in the melting pot when he grabbed the goal his general play deserved on 33 minutes - 1-7 to 1-4. But points from Chris Blake and Murphy stretched the gap back out to five before a Cunningham free closed the first-half entertainment.

A Foley brace was followed by two quickfire points from Wicklow No.12 Darren Hayden and another Cunningham score when the action resumed before Graham Kelly ensured that the gap remained at four eleven minutes into the second half, 1-12 to 1-8.

The troublesome Cunningham's next effort was tipped over the bar by Molloy in the 51^st minute as Johnny Magee's men refused to throw in the towel but Murphy pointed to restore the four-point difference with a quarter of the match left.

When Mark Kenny lofted over the next Wicklow score, it was the inspirational Murphy who replied again. Foley (free) and St Ledger - with a real beauty - pointed to leave six between the sides with an hour played. Kenny pared the gap again with eight minutes left, after Molloy had again snuffed out a possible Wicklow goal; St Ledger stroked over a free from the deck in the 68^th minute and an injury-time effort from Cunningham was to be the Garden County's last score of this year's championship.

Carlow go into Monday morning's Round 2A Qualifier draw and there are certainly a couple of teams in there that they'd fancy welcoming to DCP!

Carlow - R Molloy; K Nolan, D St Ledger (0-3f), BJ Molloy; G Kelly, J Murphy, B Kavanagh; Brendan Murphy (1-4), S Gannon; A Kelly, D O'Brien, H Gahan; D Smithers, D Foley (0-8, 5f), C Blake (0-1). Subs: G Power (0-1) for D O'Brien (BC), D Moran for G Kelly, Brian Murphy for J Murphy, J Murphy for Brendan Murphy (BC), B Cawley for S Gannon (BC).

Wicklow - R Lambert; C Hyland, P McLoughlin, A Murphy (0-1); J Snell, S Kelly, D Healy; N Gaffney, A McLoughlin; M Kenny (0-2), P Cunningham (1-6, 0-4f), D Hayden (0-2); P Byrne, R Finn (0-1), M Lennon. Subs: S Thompson for M Lennon, D Woods for N Gaffney, R O'Brien for P McLoughlin, P O'Connor for R Finn, M O'Connor for P Byrne, J Crowe for D Hayden.

Referee - P O'Sullivan.

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