Carlow captain Benny Kavanagh admits that the win over Waterford was a huge boost to football in the county.

The Barrowsiders defeated Waterford in the opening round of the All-Ireland SFC qualifiers at Dr Cullen Park last weekend, which was a huge boost them following the hammering they received from Meath just a few weeks earlier.

Kavanagh revealed to the Carlow Nationalist that a win over the Déise was imperative and now they can go on to play Clare in the next round with a renewed confidence.

"Carlow football needed it," said Kavanagh. "We needed it. We took a lot of flak after the Meath game and were always going to take criticism.

"We knew we were better than that. We played well for 20 minutes against Meath and I said to the lads we needed to put that into seventy minutes."