Shane Mulligan is convinced Longford can put their Allianz Football League relegation heartbreak behind them to reach the Leinster final.

Longford were relegated from Division 2 after losing seven games on the bounce, but with Dublin, Kildare and Westmeath on the other side of the Leinster SFC draw, Mulligan believes Glenn Ryan's charges have as good a chance as anyone on their side of reaching the provincial decider.

"The ambition is to go further and make a final appearance" the experienced defender told the Irish Examiner.

"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 insists the midlanders won't be taking Wicklow's challenge lightly on Sunday.

"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," he continued.

"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." Tweet

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