Wicklow will play Down in the Tailteann Cup final on July 11th after an impressive second-half performance led them to a 2-26 to 4-15 victory over Offaly at Croke Park this evening.

Oisin McConville’s side hit the front with an Eoin Darcy goal in the 15th minute before falling back behind once Dylan Hyland netted for the Faithful men in the very next attack.

Mark Jackson’s two-point free steered Wicklow back in the ascendancy, but they’d conceded another goal via Marcas Dalton and, from there, their opponents surged clear with points from Keith O’Neill, Jack McEvoy, Jordan Hayes and Jack Bryant.

The eve of half-time would see Offaly hit the net again, with Shane Tierney providing the finish that saw his side taking in a 3-11 to 1-9 advantage at the break.

Christopher O’Brien’s two-pointer saw the gap cut to six as many minutes into the restart and the Garden County chipped away at their deficit, sending over two more two-point frees from Jackson that had the scoreboard suddenly reading 3-12 to 1-17.

Oisin McGraynor sent over a free that levelled the sides on 56 minutes before backing it up with a timely goal. Harry Plunkett and McGraynor swapped points after that and a Jack McEvoy goal brought Offaly back on level terms with 10 minutes to go, but an Eoin Murtagh two-pointer would be followed up by Kevin Quinn and Jonathan Carlin points that put Wicklow in the driving seat down the home stretch.

Rory Egan and O’Neill hit points that halved the Offaly deficit ahead of O’Brien and Joe Prendergast doing likewise at the other, and Darragh Fee then rounding off the winning tally in the dying stages to secure a Croke Park final berth for McConville’s men in three weeks’ time.

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